ZR8ED

That's pretty cool. At our Z meet last night, I heard that our club has sent a gift to Mr K! We all chipped in and signed a card as well. We all really appreciate what he has done by creating the Z and the communities of Z lovers! Happy Birthday! Mr K!

It's an OZC joint east/west meet. Montana's in Milton just off the 401 at James Snow Parkway. Meeting @7 I'll be early as I already brought the Z with me to work, and I am close by.

The chips are small. No more than 1/2" deep and 2" accross. Like someone dropped a tool once upon a time and took a small chunk out The rest of the slab is in pretty good condition, and just needs a good final cleaning before paint. I cleaned it fully last year but it got too cold to paint so I left it. (read got lazy and procrastinated again) Should be a quicker clean up this time. I miss the epoxy floor. So much cleaner and easier to wipe up/clean, and has an added benefit of making the room brighter. I appreciate if you have a product name. I'll have to find a place and see what they carry up here. I have only searched the usual civilian/mass consumer type stores. Thanks, Scott

Does anyone have a suggestion for repairing small chips/pits in a cement floor? I have been waiting to paint the floor with an epoxy based paint, but someone suggested that I repair some of the imperfections in the floor first to make it smoother, so I have been holding off, thinking about it (should read..got lazy and procrastinated) Could plain ole cement work? (powder not with aggregate) I have seen nice repairs in industrial plants, made of some type of epoxy resin, but not sure what it is or where I could get some not in 5 gal pails. Suggestions ideas are welcome. Scott.

Ok now we're talking! Coming along nicely. You are motivating me again to make sure my garage is cleaned and prepped for winter projects. I still have not done my epoxy floor. I may not have room for the hoist, but I am interested in the same device you saw at Jerry B's I didn't see him at zfest for more info about it. I will be at this weeks meeting though...with the Z.

Pic as promised. Austin. I wonder if it is the splitter part (sticking out infront of the airdam) that is causing you some of your issues. Definately try some careful testing. We don't need another John C. story about feeling like your going to go airborne. You could always remove/cut the front part off, and make it end at the airdam. May not have to scrap the whole thing. At my clubs car show, I met up with a friend who copied my original bellypan, who specifically mentioned how happy he was with the difference in handling. Makes me think that unless the pan is angled the wrong way (tilted down towards the back of the car), that a basic pan should not hinder or reduce the performance of the car. This makes 4 cars that I know of using a front belly pan (cars I've driven or sat in) that have a pan similar to my old pan.

A month later and a few highway runs under my belt: Well, the pan is working pretty well. I did some trial runs around the block to see if there were any clearance issues, but it was after a few highway runs, that I tried a few fast turns (lefts and rights), when I discovered a slight rub under hard left turns. I had painted the inside edge of the airdam, and an aluminum bracket that holds the upper "flare extension". I found that the tire rubbed slightly and rubbed off some of the paint. It took a few turns before I could track it down, until it rubbed enough to see the wear. A little bit of dremelling on the passenger side bracket, and all is well. I have shaken the car down pretty well, and have not had any rubbing/shifting/scraping etc. It does not make any noise while driving (for anyone concerned about the thickness of the aluminum causing it to flex and make noises while driving) I do have a couple of speed runs completed, and have not had any ill effects. I do not have enough seat time yet to determine if the larger pan is any better that the old one. It is nice and stable at speed just like the old pan. I was at my Z clubs yearly show/shine last weekend, and I have a few pics that I will link up (from other members that posted photos from the show) It was partly cloudy which always helps a black car. hehe! Scott.

I have a few other words of wisdom when I was studying Zen. Humorous Zen: If life is really like a box of chocolates, then you can’t truly live life without getting your fingers sticky. Life can be like a brown trout down a rabbit hole until you see that the hole is actually a sea, and you are not a rabbit Blood is thicker than water, unless the water is frozen. For copyright purposes I wrote the first two, the last one I stole from Buddy Wassisname of his comedic story about a 454 corvette engine into a Yammy (a skidoo with a Yamaha sticker on it)

I can never leave well enough alone. This time I am working on the intake piping into my t3/t4 hybrid turbo. I no longer have a MAF, and it is now a bit of a patch work from the filter to the turbo inlet. Background. Mild modded vg30et in a 280z. I was still using the STOCK turbo inlet pipe from a z31. Yep. I made it fit the new inlet by slicing it upalong the flange to flare it out enough to fit on the larger t4 housing. Yes it was very barbaric. Not very pretty, and most likely restrictive due to its flattend section originally designed to go up and over the front motor mount (drivers side) I used the part, because I had a complete parts car for my original swap where I kept the stock t3 during the break in phase of testing the driveline in an s30. It was just easier to keep the engine setup as stock as possible, and custom making a pipe is not as fun when you have a perfectly fitted part in your hand already. Its got pretty banged up and dented to make it fit the t4 housing with less than 1/4 inch of clearance from the motor mount due to the larger turbo. I actually had to destroy the part last night removing it from the car. The engine was installed into the car with the inlet pipe on the turbo, and there is no room to remove it without lifting the motor again. So NO going back on this mod. Now on to my question. building a custom inlet pipe from mandrel bent steel (3inch dia) is beyond my skill level unless I want it to look like the last pipe. (crap) I do however have some nice 3" flexible hose reinforced with SS wire. The hose is pretty flexible, and I was able to test fit it on the turbo and got it to past under the motor mount for a greatly improved direction of flow. ( there is now no need to have two 90 degree bends to clear over top of the motor mount.) I am all set to continue when this naging question made me stop working on the car. "Will the hose collapse when under full load (suction into the turbo)"? I have been using this exact piece of hose on the intake already, but not this close to the turbo. It is approx 18" long, and the bends are not nearly as sharp, though the first bend is probably 50-70 degrees. ( I only have 4.5 inches of clearance from the turbo inlet until it hits the motor mount, and has to dive under it 3 inches or so) Should I be concerned? or should I just go for it and stop worrying so much. Just man up and put that belly pan back on and button everything up and drive the darn thing. Yes I should have pics, I can throw some up tonight if it would help. Thanks, Scott.

Here is my message for the day: It is better to be alive and wrong than dead right. Works in so many aspects of life.

You have done an outstanding job for a garage spray! Time, patience, lots of prep work (work area and piece being painted) In a world of $10K paint/body jobs for a good body/paint job, DIY is a huge savings when considering our cars value when completed. A $10k body job on a car that very rarely fetches over $20K resale is just not practical. Most z's are in the under $10K resale range anyways. You can spend that money on other things..(read, go fast stuff) Unless you want a show car.. I also don't cry so hard when I get a stone chip in my $100.00 respray of the back half of my Z. Keep up the good work and keep us posted!

I have been receiving loads of emails regarding my pan, and if I have plans to continue it further back, and rebuild my rear diffuser. I had a large rear diffuser until I had the rear fascia designed and built which made it unusable and in need of a major redesign. I removed it and have not gotten back to it. 1 I don't have any measurements of my current pan, and if I did, it would not likely help much, as my VG30ET conversion is a complete "one off" and I made the pan to fit around it, the oil pan, and of course my air dam is now a "one off" so the front measurements would be quite different. I still have the old pan that I could measure up if someone wants it. 2 I do plan on rebuilding a rear diffuser, but I will leave it alone for now and just "think" about it, and how I would design it this time. Mounting would be very straight forward as I would use some of my original mounts at the differential, and there is lots to mount to on the fascia (rear roll pan) 3 I do have plans to fabricate a pan that joins the two floorboard frame rails, but those plans are on hold until I redo my floors and rails. It is too much work to build it, only to change the mounts when the floors/rails are all redone, and most likely modified. I am enthusiastic about attempting it, and seeing the effects though. I'm not sure where they will start and end, that will all depend on clearance around the tranny, exhaust etc. 4 I have not tested the new pan at high speed. My old pan though did work fantastic, and noticeably improved stability well beyond reasonable speeds. I fully expect the same results. Cooling issues were never a problem with the old pan, they actually improved with the use of the pan. Overall, I do not expect to see any noticeable improvements over my last pan. Time will tell. Some testing will happen at a future club track event. I'd love to see it in a future windtunnel event, but that will not likely happen, as my results would not be all that useful to the majority of Z owners. It would be cool though. 5 No I'm not a bodyman, engineer, tinsmith, etc though I do work in the automotive field, and I have lots of links to the world of Z's, but mostly I just love working and customizing my Z, and I like to do things differently for the sake of being different. Anything I do with this car is totally do able by someone willing to take their time, research, plan, and have reasonable tools and a place to work on it. 6 No the car is not for sale.. well never say never, but not for any reasonable price. Thanks everyone for the support and comments!! Scott.

Proxlamus: Doh! Thanks. So much for planning ahead eh? Luckily it pops off pretty quick! Tonycharger72: A lot of time was spent just planning "how" I would do some of this stuff. I made a few mistakes, that cost me time and extra effort. The "table" I made to create a flat edge was very key to making things easier. Easier to create a flat bottom edge, as well as a flat surface in which to work from. I cut the foam using a drywall knife, which is heavily serated (not particularly sharp) This worked extremely well. I could have saved A LOT of effort if I had have covered the foam with a thin skim coat of bondo or something to prevent fibreglass resin from soaking into the foam. This caused extra effort to reshape it/fix it with fibreglass. I figure it extended my timeline at least a weeks worth of sanding and leveling/shaping. For comparison, it took an experienced fibreglass body man approx 1 week to construct a rear fascia on my Z from one picture and my description, and it took me a month of evenings on my own to design, build moulds, and then construct/shape the airdam. Someone should be able to use my method, and cut the time in half if they are motivated. There is still a lot of time involved in just waiting for resins to cure. I could only work on a small part at a time, and had to let things dry before recoating etc.. So there is no easy way to have this done on a weekend if you catch my meaning. I will incorporate my learnings into my future projects, and hopefully make them better and easier. Thanks, Scott.

Project wrap up. I got back under the car and continued on the pan. I reworked my design several times planning where I could place mounts, and how to keep the pan at the same angle. I could not get the pan to go any further back than the transmission due to clearance issues around the exhaust and the clutch m/c, so I ended up going with my original idea, and stop it at the tranny. I had to notch the pan to leave some clearance for shape of the pan, but other than that it was pretty straight forward. I made flanges that bolted to the transmission/block bolts. I used foam rubber backing to go between the pan and the mount to reduce vibrations. My driveline doesn't rock much at all, so it should not pose a problem. I will monitor the situation, but it is very secure at this time. Here are a couple of pics of the pan just before I lowered it off the stands. I figured these would be the best shots I would get for now. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, but judge for yourself, and take what you want from my experience. Scott.

Time to continue. I took a bit of time to give the garage a good once over. Its now clean and ready for the next task. I picked up another piece of aluminum that is a few inches bigger, and now i'm ready. I got out the welder and did some practice welding (I have very little welding experience, and nothing more than some tips from some of my welder friends as training) I am going to weld on a couple of small steel flanges on my frame rails to act as rear mounts for the second part of the bellypan. The front edge will mount to the front crossmember. I have decided to try and weld on a flange as opposed to trying to "bolt" on something to the frame rail, but that will be my fall back position if I severely fail at welding. I have not had the car up at "go to jail" speeds, so I can't comment on any changes in the stability, but I have shaken the car down, and everything seems secure, and I'm not too worried about anything falling off the car. The air dam is almost anti climatic, as it looks different, but blends in well enough that it doesn't look "bolted on". It looks like that's the way it was supposed look like. I do like it though, and I would/will do this again, with some of my learnings, it would go better next time. The second part of the pan should go rather quick. Once I get the car up on the stands and the brakets planned out and fabbed up, it should be a straight forward install. I am not sure how I will photograph the underside right away, as it will need to go on a hoist, so it may be sometime before that happens. I will try and plan some better pics, but seeing details on a black car is not that easy. I'll get back here with some updates on the weekend if time allows me this week.

That's great that it worked out! Many have told me I should make the swap as well. I keep telling myself that yes I have a lot more power going to the wheels, but my axles are almost perfectly horizontal, and that it is driveline "angles" that really hurt UV joints. I am coming up on 10 years with my VG30ET swap, and I haven't broken a ujoint since I had my welded diff in the car more than 12 years ago. Congrats on the show too! Scott.

I used to drive mine to work as a daily driver in the summers, but now I work too far away, and I prefer to get 46mpg with my sentra...that and it is an auto with air. Great for daily traffic jam. Funny though. I was thinking of the Z on the weekend while cleaning the dust from the garage (sanding dust is EVERYWHERE). I am taking a break and driving the Z for a while, then I will finish the 2nd part of my bellypan (see my aero thread) in the next week or so. I began thinking of the next things "todo" I want to reconfigure my air intake, as I have a piece of pipe that is very restrictive that goes around my motor mount, that I should tackle. I'm sure it will improve the throttle response. (its pretty nasty looking modded original intake elbow from a z31T) I still plan on redoing the floors, but that will lead to new seat installations as well. (driver floor damaged by a mech not listening to me on how to jack an S30.) I'm entertaining thoughts of another z, but I am not too seriously thinking of selling the Z. I have wayyyy too much invested, for such a small resale value, and I just can't justify it. I guess I should try and source a new local mechanic (my only mech left is a 1hr drive away) Maybe I can get someone else to do the more mundane maintenance, unless I can find another master fabricator that take on some of my larger challenges. That would be great! I know it costs $$$$, but it sure can speed things up, and with proper tools, turn out better than any custom stuff I can do. Back to the mods... for now.

Interesting indeed. What I get from this is that underbody aero is about as complicated as rocket science, except that less people have/are working on it. This doesn't mean that all is lost. What it does mean is that much of what you hear/read on the net about theories, is just that; theories. What I am taking from it though is that if we are to work on underbody aero for our z's, then it is up to us to experiment, (carefully and safely I hope) Try and document and share our ideas/results. It sure won't stop me. Wind tunnel or not. Its going to be seat of the pants, stopwatch on the track, video recording, gas mileage checking, and hopefully not flying off the track airborne! (that last one is for John C.) Scott.

I just don't know what it is with me and my Z. I have modded my car enough to make me think twice about driving it "HARD" on the track etc due to the expense of repairing/replacing very expensive and sometimes "one off" custom parts, but I am always thinking of what is next to mod on the car, what cool mod/idea has been developed/discussed here at Hybridz etc. I'm not toooo worried about it being stolen while I'm parked in lots/friends houses etc due to the car being difficult to conceal, and who would you part it out to, and really, it does not have any serious "value" so I do drive it occasionally to the grocery store, mall, movie theatres, etc and always enjoy crusing with it. (I get lots of thumbs up while driving it) I have recently thought about selling/trading it for a very clean lightly modded 1st gen, with just a few mods (brakes, springs,shocks, wheels), and just STOP screwing around with it. I used to put 10Km's++ per year on it, and now I'm lucky if I put 1-2K. It sits far more than it did in the past. It does look wicked sitting in the garage though. I then said to myself that I won't go zedless, so I would need to find a new Z first. Something in the 5-7K$ range would be nice. Hmm then I thought, why don't I just keep it, and have a second Z to drive. Even a mostly stock Z is a lot of fun on the track, and shouldn't break the bank, and let the other beast evolve to somekind of a street/cruise/experimental/custom show car? I don't know. I've been reading about some of the "road trip" z purchases, and it seems like a great adventure, relatively safe for someone familiar with Z's and has lots of contacts. Any thoughts from some of the other extremely customed/modded z owners? Have you modded it too much now where it has become a very specific use car? In my area we have a street racing law that says if your traveling over 50kph over the limit, you are street racing, car gets impounded on the spot, licence suspension on the spot, and up to a 10K$ fine, so having an extremely fast car seems pretty useless these days. I also worry about having a second z, and trying to divide my time/money between two cars. One costs me enough as it is. Just thinking out loud here watching it rain, and don't want to take the z out and get it wet..wet equals more rust to fix..Yeeesh! Scott.

Not likely going to find a lot of "I've done that" kind of help. It is an interesting idea for sure, but is a totally custom job that would be difficult to predict the issues that may arise during the installation. It is possible to do. I would measure lots of headlights, and find one you like that "looks" like it will fit. You won't be able to get closer than that. I would then try and mount the headlight in a frame to hold it in place, and be able to "test light" it at night to make sure you can get them aimed. Don't forget to test the same on your stock headlight so you "KNOW" what to aim for. Then I would use some plastic wrap to work as a release, and then use expanding foam to create the shape to blend into the fenders. Some fibreglass, and paint, and your good to go. I've made it sound kinda easy, but it will take a considerable amount of time to do unless you are an experienced bodyman. Go for it. Post back your progress. Scott.

What!? no Nissans? 02-09 Altima is a very nice car. I had an 03 with the 3.5. Very roomy, easy to drive, huge trunk, and excellent rear seating. Handles and brakes very well, and with the v6...will hand most other cars theirs a$$es. I currently have an 09 sentra, and an 08 versa. Both nice to drive and very roomy. Scott.

Well for starters. How much of the car are you painting? interior door jambs/full interior/underhood/wheel wells/undercarriage? For a normal (paint the outside and maybe the door jambs) basecoat/clearcoat, a 1/2 gallon of base and a 1/2 gallon of clear (not including the reducers) should be plenty. Our cars are pretty small. For example. I painted the entire back half of my car (not the roof) with less than 1 quart of basecoat. I used enamel paint, so I didn't use clearcoat. A typical OEM painted car (new car) uses just under a 1/2 gallon of base and 1/2 gallon of clearcoat. That is just an example to give you a ball park idea. Good luck with the paint job!

Not quite a final update. I've been working all weekend and I've almost got it completed. I have made a small cut error, and I will have to redo the second section of the pan. I am going to actually make it slightly larger to make it easier to mount it under the car. The piece I bought was 24"x24", and I need it to be a few extra inches longer and wider to make it reach the frame rails, which will make it much easier to mount the trailing edge of the pan. The main pan is fully installed, and the airdam is painted. I have opted to paint part of it with a rubberized coating to protect it from stone chips. That is why it has a textured look to it. I am going to use the same material on the rear quarters (similar look as older Porsches with the rear flare guard material) Here are a few shots from today. The lighting isn't all that great to show the detail on a black car. Sorry.

A 225/50/15 tire has been eluded to by many to be an excellent sized combo for our z's. I believe some of the racers here (John C. and others) have mentioned that size being near optimal accross the broadest range of uses for Z's. I'm talking in general terms street/track use. I have run that size tire, and the look matches the handling. A nice ride height drop, a bit more mechanical advantage (smaller dia) Excellent contact patch etc. This doesn't neccessarily apply to high hp turbo's, v8's or other EXTREME Z's. BTW an 8" rim is perfectly suited to this width of tire.

Good point sweetleaf. Paint mfg DO have recomended gun mfg's,tips etc for their paints. Not all guns work the same with all types of paint. .