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Haha, right. I wish I could do a mural but I couldnt paint a samurai if my life depended on it... I do like most of the comments and ideas though. I think its definitely set my mind on painting the wheels something. Now just to decide on what. I think I'll stick with black color since I know if I screw anything up I can just spray it all black and it will look reasonable. Here's a couple more quick photoshops of various ideas posted, just to give an impression of what it might look like. Black divots with a "polished" center section and lip. Black center with "polished" lip. I know they arent really very polished looking but its just to get a quick impression anyway. Either way my finished product probably wont look anything near as good as my photoshop version haha!

I'm rather unsatisfied with the wheels that came with my car. Theyre early NA Z31 wheels and in my opinion do not work with the car very well. I tried looking for a set of 15s but couldnt find anything cheap enough that looked better, and now its too late (I spent my all wheel/tire money on a set of Azenis). Now that I'm stuck maybe someone can help me make them look a little better on my car. Here's a quick photoshop as if I painted them black, I like the look a little better. I havent done much spray painting but I found this tutorial on the interwebs, and it seems easy enough. http://www.clubprotege.com/wil/howto/paintwheels/index.htm Any opinions/ideas/advice on painting my wheels? Thanks! Black Stock

Its true.. I should have listened to Jon 74 260 now I am doomed. Funny you mention that. I was beat on Sunday by a Yaris as well! Although this guy was running non stock tires and had coilovers. Still though, this is serious fun. Good luck to you in your next event

Little delayed I know but thanks to everyone for the advice. I actually followed most of it and had an incredible experience at my first autocross event this last Saturday. It started a little ominously for me since as I pulled in to parking behind a couple corvettes and a viper srt10. It was also pretty wet and slightly chilly out. After registration I passed tech without any issues. At first it was a little damp but dried up after lunch. Unfortunately I was in run group 2 in the afternoon and it started run right as we started our runs. I got 12 runs all together, and had an absolute blast. As they were wrapping up Portland was hit with insanely hard rain. It made driving quite scary but once home I was happy it didnt hit when I was racing. The next day there was a regular autocross event but the weather was much better. I came just for the afternoon session and got 4 runs in. I was surprised, despite it being my second ever autocross I ran faster than a few other hot cars (WRXs, Minis, even a Miata or 2). Weather was quite nice, with a little rain just as I got in the car to go home. Overall I had an excellent time. I dont think I drove too bad for my first/second time, but I still have a lot to learn. Here are some pictures of my car at the event. Next autocross is May 31st in Salem, I will be there! Hope to see some of you out sometime soon. Here is a link to more pics of the saturday event. I saw many people with cameras on sunday's too, maybe I can track them down as well. http://cbfamily.smugmug.com/gallery/8083693_gw7xZ#526685579_e4Vw8

Mcmaster is awesome. My old boss had a saying, "you could go to the moon using nothing but parts from the mcmaster catalog" I also like www.fastenal.com, their selection is about the same as mcmaster but they arent an online only supplier, they have locations all over too. Theres one near my house and theres been a couple times when I just needed 1 or 2 nuts or bolts where they just gave em to me for free. Pretty cool.

I double checked the part number and those are the same studs that I used so if you order them you should be ok. Yes I believe Nissan is M12x1.25. As far as lug nuts, I just went to Napa and had no issues. Their selection seemed reasonable. I think its a good deal, it worked out great for me since I had to replace stripped out studs anyway. I was rather annoyed having to basically throw away my old perfectly good lug nuts but oh well. Oh and no, the ones in the picture look totally different from what I have. I dont know why it is that way. If you want, I can take a picture of what mine look like later but its nothing special.

I just swapped wheel studs on my 260z using ARP M12x1.5 studs from Summit Racing. They fit perfectly, longer than youd ever need, reasonably priced, and are probably stronger than most studs you can get. You WILL need open ended lug nuts though, remember the thread isnt stock either. I think I ordered these, but do some searching. I found info somewhere on this forum back when I was looking for longer studs.. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=ARP-100-7708&N=700+115&autoview=sku

I'll definitely try to get some new plugs in before the event. I'm probably due for new ones anyway so this will be a very welcome change. Based on some of the stuff I've read on the oregon scca website, I think they will be looking for the standard autox stuff. The only difference that I've seen is they require the participants to allow an instructor to drive the car. The battery holddown is actually one of the things I've fixed, no more bungee cord here, seems very solid. As far as the 4 bbl fueling issues, we shall see. I have a wideband controller ordered so maybe I can investigate this issue further. Funny thing, I've actually fired up my old intallation of Live For Speed, (www.lfs.net), and setup one of their lower hp, rwd cars (the XRG I think) with similar transmission, diff, and steering ratios as my car. Its as reasonably close to a Z as one can get I'd say. Anyway, I downloaded a bunch of autox layouts and been doing some "practicing." Its probably not that useful, but it beats pissing off my neighbors Any other advice?

Its been a while since I've delved into C, I use VB mostly. Try changing the f in this line scanf("%1f", &radius); to lf (for long float) and see if it works. I think a double is classified as a lf for some odd reason. If it works, you can change the rest of it similarly

The weekend after next (May 2nd) I am planning on attending my first autox event. The oregon scca has setup an autox novice school and I'm one of up to 30 people who were let in. I've read at length about autox events online and in GRM magazine but have yet to actually witness one. In fact, the closest I've been to "racing" my car is the "spirited" driving I do on some of the empty, winding roads not far from my house. So I feel a little nervouse going into this. My main concern is passing tech inspection, and how the car will hold up over repeated runs. I've done a few modifications to my car already, tokico springs, illumina struts, arizona z 4bbl manifold (yes yes I know ), 3.9 r200 diff, 280zx 5 speed, urethane bushings, hawk street pads, new falken rt-615s. It seems to be running well, but I want no issues when I run it on the track so I'm looking for some advice on what to do these last two weeks to get the car prepped perfectly for the races. Any potential problem areas similarly setup cars have that I ought to check? Also any other advice on how to survive and get the most out of the day would be great. I dont remember being as excited and nervous over something since I was getting my license many years ago!

AtlanticZ has some pretty good articles on many things, including wheel bearing replacement. Check them out. rear: http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/rearwheelbearings/index.html front: http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/frontwheelbearings/index.html

I'm planning on doing this in the next few days. In the stock 280z rear isolators there are rubber bushings instead of bearings. Are the front isolators different in a way that you have to use a bearing instead of the bushings?

I've installed tokico springs and illumina shocks in my car last year which lowered the car a little bit. I feel I would like to lower it a little bit more to fit the lower profile tires I'm getting. In the back I plan to swap out the thick shock isolators to the thin ones from the 240z but I'm out of luck on the front. I was hoping someone could offer a similar, simple, solution to lower the front of the car. One possible solution suggested to me was to run the "street camber kit" from MSA, but remove some of the bushing material to make it thinner, thus lowering the car. I would prefer to avoid cutting the springs, as I do not wish to loose any more suspension travel (modifications to the isolators will not cause a loss of suspension travel right?). I also do not wish to switch to coilovers, but rather find a simple, but effective solution using most of what I have now. Any one have any ideas?

I'd pick the Caterham R500 superlight. Features other cars have that this car doesnt have are just "convenience" !

I'm looking for some new wheels to put on my Z on the cheap. Not really wanting to pay more than $500 but if I see something I really like I'm sure we can work something out. I'm not really looking for any of the stock Z wheels, but pretty much any other 15" or 16" will do. The wheels need to be as low offset as possible. The wider the wheel the better. Also I'd prefer they come with tires. I'm trying my best not to be too picky, but no guarantees I imagine shipping costs to be pretty big, so I prefer to deal with someone locally here in the Pacific Northwest. Please dont hesitate to let me know if youve got something that fits this description. Thanks!

I've always liked the idea of making an adjustable, one piece billet lower control arm for my Z. Similar to the one offered by Arizona Z. Well while I was taking apart my suspension to install my new bushing kit I decided to have a quick go at modeling up the stock control arm in solidworks. This is what came out. The dimensions may not be perfect, tolerance is at best +/- 1/32" and some of the dimensions were "eyeballed" (I did the best I could with what I had at the time). I think its a reasonable start for someone interested in a similar project. 260zlowercontrolarm.zip

Haha thats crazy, I live almost right off barbur. I test drive my z all around that area almost every day (unless its on stands lol). Maybe Ill see some of you guys around Mongo, I found Dan Hall's I will definitely check it out. Thanks for the tip. Any others with recomendations?

I've noticed quite a few people on this forum are from the Portland area, so I thought I'd give this a try. I've recently moved back to portland from corvallis for the spring/summer to work. Over the last 6 months in school I've bought a couple boxes worth of various parts for my Z. I was hoping that someone could recommend me a good machine shop whose services I might need to use over the course of my various projects. I would primarily use the machine shop for "small" jobs such as pressing off my spindle pins, or my hub-siezed brake drums. Other services might be used eventually as well but just in general they should be a good place to turn for help if something isnt going well. I'm not as worried about how much they charge as long as they do good work and are honest to deal with. I tend to be one not to question people openly and its cost me several times, I dont want to have to question these guys. I live near PCC Sylvania (SW Portland, near Tigard) so the closer it is to the better. Any help I recieve will be greatly appreciated!

I dont want to hijack this thread but this is the first I've heard of the EcoCar competition. As I said before I'm planning to do my senior design project for FSAE but based off a quick search this looks like something I might be very interested in (electric vehicles have been always in the back of my mind, a possible next project car for me is an electric powered gen 1 civic autox car, if I can get one together). Is it still possible for additional teams to join the competition? If so I might try talking to the SAE professor here and see if we can put a team together, or get involved another way somehow. Any additional info you guys can provide would be awesome, but I dont know if itd be prudent to post it in the same thread... I dont know the etiquette for this kind of thing. Thanks guys!

Thats funny you mention controls, I've just spent the last two days studying for my final in that class, and have all day tomorrow also. Good times, the final is going to be real fun. I guess what I meant with my first post is just keep your options open. Experience is experience and you can learn something new and useful no matter which industry you spend some time in, even if you dont stay in it. Its been the case for me anyway.

I dont know if its an option for you but PSU, OSU, and OIT have a great program setup for juniors and seniors in engineering and is a great way to get experience working as an engineer in different several different companies doing real engineering work. I myself have been through this program and had a good experience http://mecop.ous.edu/ is the website if you or, anyone else is interested. I do have to mention though that due to the economy they cut back quite a bit on how many interns were taken (last year I think around 400 interns were placed, this year many including myself didnt get placed) I dont know how close you are to graduating but if you havent gotten any experience working (for pay, or volunteer work) I highly recommend you look around to see if anything is available. Experience can teach you many things. Sure you may know your interest now, but it can change a lot simply by working at one company or another. I know several guys who are totally into cars and everything but are extremely happy working in an industry nothing to do with cars. At the same time it can teach you that you really DO want to work in the automotive industry after all, which in itself is good to confirm. If you cant get a paid internship, see if a professor will be willing to have you volunteer in his lab doing research. This is something I never did, as I wanted to make money, but I regret that decision immensely. There is some really awesome research going on ALL the time. This can also give you an excellent reference to use later and, who knows, if you like what hes doing you might end up going to grad school under him. Formula or Baja SAE clubs are EXCELLENT experience if your school has one. The professors that run these clubs are typically car guys and its good to be on a first name basis with them and you might get in touch with company reps at the competitions your team goes to. I'm doing my senior design project for the Formula SAE team next fall most likely, REALLY looking forward to it. As for me, I'm set for graduating with my ME degree next winter or spring (depending on how much I want to pump up my GPA). I've worked in several companies throughout my time in school. I've worked in a small company here in Corvallis designing a electrolysis filtration unit to be put to use in paper mills. It would filter out lignin (a potent biofuel) out of the waste products of the pulping process, it would also generate hydrogen. It actually ended up recovering more "energy" than it took to run it, quite amazing (my memory is hazy on the details right now). I've also worked two summers writting AutoCAD macros and scripts for a company. Basically to automate some of their more mundane design tasks to speed up their production schedule and eliminate errors on the CAM side of things. Last summer I spent 6 months(through the above program) working in a more of a manufacturing engineering role, desiging fixtures helping improve production processes. Finally saved up enough money to buy my Z too! I'm actually looking for more work for this summer as well, so if anyone has any openings for a ME senior let me know... I work hard (and for cheaper than a "graduated" engineer...heck you can pay me in Z parts ).

Any idea of who makes the bearings offered by Black Dragon or MSA? I've read timken bearings are better than most, any idea of how these others compare in terms of quality?

Wow, this is a very intersting thread. I am pretty new to this forum but I guess I'll add my story to the pile. I'm 24 now, I bought my Z last summer, but my love for cars dates back to when I was 3 or 4 years old. I was born in Russia, where at the time cars were considered a luxury. In fact, my parents did not even own a car let alone have one as a "project." I distinctly remember if we ever had to travel anywhere long distance we would take the train or find a friend of a friend who was traveling that way and would agree to take us along. Yet even back then my mind could think of nothing but cars, I knew all about the old Soviet era cars-Ladas, Volgas, Moskvitches, Zappos, etc, often talking about them with my parents and relatives, much to the amazement of the anyone present (or so I am told). My most memorable childhood experience had to be when my uncle took me on his lap when he was driving his old Moskvitch down a country road and let me steer. I think we went through more holes in the road that day then I have the rest of my life haha. When we finally moved to the US in 1991 you cant imagine my amazement. Everyone had a car, and there were so many different models. Took me a while to get used to it. Our first family car was a 1980-something Plymouth Champ. Fast forward to high school. I always envied the kids with the cool cars but never really understood how anyone got the money to buy one. I drove the old family car, a 1991 Ford Taurus station wagon, not the prettiest car on the lot but I loved driving it. I focused on my studies and only really worked a lot my last year of high school where I used the money to buy a nice computer that I needed for when I left for college. Since then, not much has changed. I am finishing up my Mechanical Engineering degree at Oregon State University. I've worked every summer for the last 3 years at one engineering firm or another, saving the money I made to get by the next year at school (my parents pay for my schooling but I pay for everything else). However, I would make daily rounds through craigslist for those three years, looking for a car, any car, that I could call my own. Finally this summer my search came to an end. My parents were vising family back home (so noone was around to talk sense into me), I had just recieved two hearty paychecks, and I was feeling dangerous. I saw an add on craigslist for a 1975 280z for $1300 or so, the car seemed in good condition. The ad even said, "good for a project car you can drive". "Perfect", I thought, and made the call. The car was in the same town my girlfriend lived in, 2 hours away. I took off early from work that day, and, with my heart pounding the whole way, somehow made it to Eugene. The man who sold me the car was very nice and actually sold me it for less than $1000. I agreed to drive it to my girlfriends house and have the car shipped for $150 to my house in Portland the next morning. Everything seemed so great, a car, my own, to do with what I will at last! I was ecstatic The drive to her house though quickly brought me back down from the clouds. The fuel filter was so clogged up I could not drive on the freeway any faster than about 45, and my lack of experience driving a stick made drivng on normal streets extremely intimidating. I was surprised I didnt cause any accidents, but I made it to her house in one piece. Next morning the car was delivered to my house and I made the call to my parents. I will never forget the words I said to them "So uh.. I dont know if this is good news, or bad, but I bought a car..." my dad just laughed and said "you crazy man, I should have seen this coming", we mostly left it at that. So anyway, its been almost a year now me and the car have been through a lot. I've changed that damn fuel filter, but also the carbs, installed tokico shocks and springs, bought a used 6-1 header and had 2.25" exhaust made. More work is planned for this summer, perhaps I can run her in some autox events if she is up to it. Until then the car waits for my return back home. Its funny to think that I've waited 20 years for this car, now it just waits for me. I never would have imagined that I could have a car of my own, and not just any car, a car which is effectively a toy. I dont want to seem too emotional but it really is a dream come true for me. I think we are all very lucky people to have these cars (or any cars) and hope we appreciate the gifts we have. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my story and sorry about it being so long, I tried to shorten it up but I dont think it makes sense unless you know it from the beginning.

Thats an awesome deal for a radiator. The problem is that I'm going to school right now in Corvallis and I dont have much time to get out anywhere as I'm completely swamped with school projects the next two weeks. This does also mean I'm not in a hurry to get a new radiator since I wouldn't be able to install it till at least next month. The reason I referred to the JTR radiator is it seems a pretty no-brainer install with their brackets. Since I cant actually go see it, do you mind giving me some more info on how you mounted this one into the car and I can let you know if I'm interested further based on that? My car is a 74.5 260z. Hmm it also seems I put the thread in the wrong forum. If an admin wants to move it I will feel less stupid

I am looking to get an aluminum radiator for my car, preferably the one by JTR. However, if you have a similar one that I could easily fit in, I could be interested. Let me know. Thanks!