z2go

I called MMS up just now and ordered a bunch of hardware. The woman I spoke to was really nice and helpful, she let me modify the kit to suit my needs (I didn't need any bumper hardware, etc) and adjusted the price accordingly. So far, I'm impressed!

Thanks guys! I think the shaved rear bumper is one of my favorite parts... I was really happy how it turned out, he spent a lot of time perfecting the lines.

Holy crap, you have a serious beast on your hands. Can't wait to see it in action! You should post some video when you get it on the road.

Beautiful. Definitely get some pictures in full sunlight! Congrats!

That ding festival is what is really costing you those hours. It doesn't sound like they are padding the bill, at least not to me. I would ask them what it would cost to install the major panels, knowing they might need some coaxing. The tricky part would be replacing the rear quarter, roof, and anything else part of the unibody. Tons of welding and shaping... and your bill might start to go way past $4500. Are you going to fill in the roof, or leave the sunroof? If you are planning for any amount of serious power you might want to think about replacing the roof skin

Since this is the Body Kits & Paint section, I figured I might as well show off my new paint job. The car went away in the middle of June, and just came back last Wednesday. Still a few final touches on the bumper and hood, but my guy wanted me to have the opportunity to start working on getting it back together. So, here it is. The pictures don't do the color justice, you have to see it to really appreciate it. He did a fantastic job, and the bill reflects this greatly . I helped along the way on a few fabrication parts, like the bumper and shaving the rear end, and the bumper work was by far the biggest pain. Anyone considering buying an MSA kit as a "bolt on" should know that if you want it done right, it might be cheaper to make your own custom bumper! I originally bought the whole kit, and sent back the skirts and rear bumper because they were so terribly warped. I'm glad I did, because I love the look I ended up with. The color is 2007 Chevy Corvette Atomic Orange Effect. The effect gives green, yellow, and gold impressions in sunlight that is amazing to look at. I can only imagine watching the car move in the sunlight, it will be amazing. He did six coats of color and three coats of clear, and was a perfectionist with the bodywork. It shows!

The big question is, are you going to be doing the metal work yourself? It might end up costing the same or more to replace all of those panels, not to mention the fact that they every car is different, and those panels might not fit on your car the way you would think. With all of the years that these cars have, and hitting an untold amount of potholes, fender benders, frame tweaking incidents, however minor, make a huge difference when you go to mount a brand new piece, or even worse, weld it in. Most everything needs to be shaped to some degree, even dogleg replacements. A new hood probably isn't a bad idea, hoods are one of those pieces that are probably the most interchangeable. If you have your car at a good shop, that 4500 doesn't sound unreasonable, especially if after another 3 or 4k you end up with a painted car. From those pictures I can tell that there is a lot of work that needs to go in to fixing those parking lot dings, low spots, etc. My car had a lot of similar dents and dings, and stuff I didn't even realize was going on, like a low spot around the hatch key area from years of pressing it in. What you really want to be wary of is a shop that says that they can paint your car out the door for $3000. I've seen cars that are painted for that kind of money, and you would be better off doing the work yourself. It would at least look better, and you would save a lot of money.

For the basic stuff, if you can't find it on here try one of the other Z sites, like zcar.com or classiczcars.com. For the 5 lug question, try doing a search with google of the site, you might have better luck. All of your questions have been answered before, it's just a matter of finding them

Youtube it, there's a guy who stuffs soggy paper in the hole, and slowly pounds on the paper (pretty much like the grease and dowel method, but with paper).

If you are talking about the tie rod ends, which I think you are, you probably want to take it to get put on an alignment rack. Did you check the ball joint at the bottom of the strut too? You might want to replace both at the same time. If you haven't already, download the FSM which you can find here: http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html It might help you with a lot of those issues. Just to let you know, since you are kind of new still, you probably don't want to post too many of these basic troubleshooting type questions here, the forum is designed to be more of an advanced site to help people collaborate on more advanced issues/modifications.

Well, in THAT case, I don't think you can go wrong with Meguiars or Mothers. Just make sure it's for vinyl upholstery, if those are indeed stock seats, or even recovered seats, they most likely have vinyl covers.

I don't think any cleaner out there is going to get the seats looking new... if you want them to look new, and even feel new(er), think about buying a seat refresh kit from MSA or another vendor (a kit that has new foam and such) and some new seat covers. It's pretty easy to do and they will look awesome. Trying to recondition the old seat covers is probably not very cost effective.

Have you tried all the vendors in the links section? It's at the "Links" button at the top of the page. You might find yourself piecing together a kit... which might be a better option anyway if you read up on the different weatherstrips. Some people complain that the door weatherstrip from MSA or Black Dragon doesn't fit very well.

Hasn't been driven since 1998? That probably means it hasn't been maintained since 1998. IMHO his asking price is not fair, especially because of its stated need for engine repair. You are right, the rust is probably an underlying issue, like it is with any Z. I would inspect the hell out of it, bring a mechanic, and then start subtracting from the asking price based on that. Just from reading the ad, I get a few subtle hints about the car... "in good condition"... so it's not in great condition? "99% rust free" meaning... it needs some rust repair somewhere. Things like that make me uneasy about it.

Nope, it's definitely palosfv3's car that I was thinking of. Here's his album: http://picasaweb.google.com/wgmauto/WgmautoGregScar#

Thanks! Credit goes to my body guy for the awesome rear shave job... well, credit goes to him for everything, really. I just helped a little on some of that stuff. This isn't the first Z with this color, but I can't remember who's Z it is that has it... I'm pretty sure he's a member though. Original bumpers aren't going back on, since I have the MSA front bumper and all, so what you see will be the body lines

Thanks for all the kind words. I pushed the car out into the sunlight to take some more pictures to try to get the full effect of the color. I couldn't really capture it on the camera, I don't know why but the metallic effect doesn't show up as pronounced as in person. Here are the best shots that show the range of the effect, you can see the green and yellow flake start to come out on the corners. In person it's a lot easier to see.

How many Megs of hard drive space did that badboy have? I remember the internet just starting out as well, I can't believe the amount of information we have now at our fingertips. I definitely try not to take it for granted. I remember when Haynes, the FSM, and any How-to book were your best friend for information. And the library! Haven't stepped foot in one of those in 10-15 years.... do they still exist?

Sorry, forgot to update. I found one and it's on its way. Thanks!

I doubt that you bent the pickup tube, usually it is located close to the drain plug, where the lowest point of the tank is (but not touching the lowest point). It seems to me that you might have a hole in the pickup somewhere. If the tube were bent though, I would imagine it would bend at the solder at the top, and you would have a lot bigger problem than that. Have you ever had the tank dropped to inspect it? You might pull it down and maybe take the fuel level sender unit out to try to take a peek at the tube, and the general condition of the inside of the tank.

Try the Marine Clean on that residue, it might get it off like you are looking. Put it in a spray bottle and spray it on, keeping it wet for, say, a half hour. Don't breath it in though, it'll make you cough, at the very least. I would do as the others said and prep the fresh shiny metal, and the light rust can technically be painted right over, as long as there's nothing that can flake off. I would not paint over the glue, because your bond will be glue to POR, not POR to metal. Who knows how it sticks to glue... I know that it peels right off of the plastic cup I use for painting once it's dried, as it is a urethane based material. I wouldn't trust the glue.

I agree. I know that I have some photos that I have posted right now that I wish I could downsize... only because I posted them thinking they were a lot smaller than they really were.

Drax, can you go ahead and make your post it's own sticky??? I think this is one of the elephants in the room.

As promised, the car came home tonight. The body isn't 100% done yet, mainly the bumper needs a little bit of work for fit and the grille needs to be painted and put on, and small touches here and there, but I have it home now to start working on getting the project going again. I tried to snap some up-close pictures of the lizard skin, but it is kind of dirty, mainly from dust in the shop, water spots from wet sanding, etc, so it's not so pretty anymore. I'm going to try to clean it up, vacuum it, and see what it looks like. It's really tough stuff, after it dries it really seems like it would take a lot to chip it off. It has a really rough but fine texture, and it grips onto microfiber cloths like Velcro. It's really interesting stuff. I'm going to see what it does with water, too. Anyway, here's the pictures. In different lighting the paint really reacts differently, I'm going to try to get some pictures with natural sunlight tomorrow. These were taken halfway indoor and outdoor, and the sun was just barely still up. It's also very smokey here right now, there's a fire somewhere that is killing visibility. Let me know what you guys think, or if there's any other pictures I should take!

Looks good. It seems like a pretty good value, for all the trouble it would take to figure out proper sizing, especially some of the odd-ball sizes that these cars tend to have. Looking forward to see if you have any issues or not. I plan on buying some sets for all the body panels and some of the door hardware.