Oddmanout84

You know, now that you mention it, I may have seen you on there at one point, but my memory can be defective sometimes. Last time I went online in that game was at least a year ago, and I was having trouble keeping up with everyone else who had near mastered the in game physics (I had barely taken off the "training wheels" of the more realistic flight options). Still, even though I spent most of my time getting shot to pieces, my crowning achievement was when I dropped a well placed bomb onto someone who had just respawned on the runway and was trying to get airborne.

Yeah, I figured as much. I can't say that I would limit myself to daytime driving if I installed them though. I would definitely compensate with stronger MSR or projector lights with a very shiny bulbs.

Oh yeah, but right now I don't have much paint on the car that I care about (besides the suspension!). Once again, brake cleaner proved it was one of my best friends for this project. After a quick jet to the door mechanism INSTANTLY freed it up and made it operate like new again. I can't believe I didn't try that first... If I could marry the brake cleaner, I would.

Experience with pressure washers would tell me you'd want to keep your legs as far away from those streams as possible, lol.

That is one crazy deep lip...

Nice... what I want to know is, how much does it dim/diffuse your lights?

The stock UC seemed fine, and I know I used brake cleaner to wash up the rear areas so I could apply the aftermarket (duplicolor, NAPA, 3M). Maybe the new stuff didn't have enough time to cure, but I would think 2 days was plenty.

Oh yeah, lol.... Been there, done that. Although I can say I enjoyed jet fuel and diesel in my eye much less. Another annoying side effect that I've noticed brake cleaner having is that not only does it eat through greasy nastiness well, but it also strips rubberized undercoatings. I only say this is annoying because I had just laid down a coat of it on my wheel wells a day or two prior to me trying to use brake cleaner on a nearby component. The resulting overspray ate through the undercoat like nothing.

Electrolytic Rust Removal Clip Gone?!?!? Wow... that's disappointing! I can't believe they took it down!! I can't find the same clip on youtube, but it was a clip from a show called Truck U. Here's another clip showing the process. This is how to do it, on a much smaller scale. I used a large rubbermaid container, a 12V car battery charger at 2 amp current, and a large piece of rebar that I bent into a coil that snaked around the perimeter of the rubbermaid container. I didn't bother with the cola at the end, because it would take a lot of cola to submerge 2 rear LCAs, and I don't believe in wasting drinks, lol. Note; Do NOT EVER, during this process of rust removal, allow the positive end alligator clip (assuming you use a battery charger like me) come into contact with or submerge into the solution while you're running a current through it. If you do, you can kiss that thing goodbye as it will corrode at an accellerated rate and be rendered useless. Always clip it to a portion of the rebar that is above the water's surface.

Well, P-38 #5000 "Yippee" came off the assembly line as the only bright red P-38 in existence back in the 40's, and went on to do multiple publicity tours etc. So I guess Red Bull isn't too far off painting one up in shiny colors.

Damn you page load error!! You made me post the same thing twice!!!

If I had to go with a pre WWII race plane though, the GeeBee would be it. Ugly, sleek, dangerous... what's not to love?

If I had to go with a pre WWII race plane though, the GeeBee would be it. Ugly, sleek, dangerous... what's not to love?

Damn you Hyundai, and your feminine wiles!

Oh yeah. this would be a VERY temporary fix. I'd be surprised if it lasted more than 6 months. As for the car.... I've put more time, sweat, blood (and money) into this project than any other I've previously done. I can't see myself shortchanging it, or selling it in the near future. If I could have it my way, I will be passing this car down to my future son/daughter (whichever I'm cursed with) in the future. My current "better half" has promised me that she'll never try to force me to sell either the Z or the Harley, but we'll see. I am hitting all the rust I find with converter, so it will be for all intensive purposes GONE, though I could be wrong. Hopefully I won't have to remove a terribly larger amount of metal when I patch these areas with welds.

In that case, don't worry. You can test the theory after The zombie apocalypse when we're all undead anyway.

Guess you're right about that. I just really hate Metallica...

Ok, I know I'm getting this thread a bit off topic, but I can't help but share this. Hopefully you guys will appreciate it, especially if you're into the Japanese animation thing. I found it several months back while searching WWII aircraft clips on youtube. The plot is Axis-centric (but not "evil"), and (even if there was no sound, and you didn't know it was animated/produced/written in Japan) obviously shares a heavily Japanese point of view. And some plot elements are a bit out there. However, it is the most beautifully animated clip of WWII planes I have ever seen, with incredible attention to detail. I really enjoyed it, and if it wasn't so damn hard to find a copy of it I would own it. The "movie" is divided into 3 parts about 9 minutes each. Enjoy.

Aw crap... now you've gone and done it. I want to play IL2 but my power machine desktop is still down....

Yup! At least, I know it was a CAF museum. I have no idea where it was in Texas though, somewhere between Pecos and Dallas off the I-20. *Looks at google maps* Yeah, most likely Midland. When I was there they were also in the middle of restoring a B-29 in the back of the hanger (of which you can see a wingtip, engine and prop in the background of the first picture). Don't get me wrong, the jug is a great plane. P-51 used to be my favorite, but its spot in my heart was superseded a while ago. After hours and hours (too many!!) of playing IL2: Sturmovik, I came to love the P-40E. That plane may be slow as crap, but boy for a non-radial engine plane it sure is tough! However, even that (and the P-38) are only my favorite US planes. Call me a kraut-loving bastard if you will, but the spot in my heart for favorite fighter of all goes to the FW-190A and its later non-radial ("Dora" and Ta-152) varients. The sheer power, turn rate and ungodly weaponry earns them that right. I can never be the next Erich Hartmann, even if I tried (missiles are for p*ssies), but at least I have IL2 on my computer.

Oh, dammit... You guys opened up a huge can of beans by starting this thread. I'm a sucker for classic aviation, though most of my knowledge lies in WWII aircraft. I actually took these pictures almost 5 years ago, a few days after graduating from flight school. I was in the process of driving my Z home from California when I happened across an aviation museum in Texas just off the highway. After looking around the place, I went into the hanger and started poking around. They had all sorts of planes, including an Ilyushin and a Spanish Bf-109. Then I came to this one. Not only was this the closest I'd ever been to a P-47, but I'd also never seen one in such perfect condition. Its by no means my favorite plane, but god it was awesome. And MASSIVE!! Its pilot came from behind me while I was snooping around, and after letting him know I was just out of flight school and was impressed with the aircraft, he let me get some photo ops. It just so happened that he used to be a Marine as well, and I had actually seen him fly overhead during an airshow a day earlier in Arizona as I drove through the state. Talk about coincidence! One of the coolest days of my life.

And take a look at a ot of Metallica's older stuff. A lot of those are songs that they didn't write (Whiskey in a Jar, and Bob Seger's Turn the Page for example). And they complain about people stealing their music, to the point of pulling songs off of youtube which fans turned into background music for their personal videos.... Hearing that Zepplin did that though... wow...

+1 to EVERYTHING people have replied with on this thread. It could be much, much worse. Check my thread out in this section (*New* Z Project). My car was (I believe) in California and the southwestern states for its whole life before I bought it. Nothing but a tiny bit of surface rust in the usual areas. Once I took it here to CT, it sat cocooned in several layers of waterproof tarp top to bottom over bottom to top with several moisture evaporators that were changed out every year. Water still managed to pool underneath. Over the course of almost 4 years like that in New England's environment, my car degraded to about what yours looks like right now. NOT EVEN FOUR YEARS!!! These cars rust fast, and I'm willing to bet that car is relatively fresh from Cali, or has been sitting in a very dry storage area for 10 years. Just take a look at the majority of the Z cars you see from around here (whatever few you may find still in existence). You're still sitting on a gem, regardless that there's a lot of work ahead of you. A Z car in New England, even one in that condition, is worth more than $500. My work has been slowly progressing on my Z since August/September when I unwrapped her, and I'm sure I could have gotten much farther if I didn't take a couple month-long breaks and really put my nose to the grindstone. I'm willing to bet you can have it running by summer if you really try. Just set your priorities. Kill the rust. This can obviously be done while you take things apart. A rotisserie would be awesome, but its not absolutely needed if you don't mind getting dirty crawling under the car. I don't have one, I'm doing just fine (although I really wish I could). If you search some of my posts, like in the budget ideas thread http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=128858 I've posted some interesting and cheap ways to remove rust. Suspension and bushings, while you kill the rust. You might as well, it'll make the car handle a lot better, and your shocks/springs/bushings are likely mush by now. I'd also add that you might as well buy some new spindlepins and lockbolts for your rear transverse links. Those things are a hooker to remove, and likely will get destroyed in the process unless you buy a spindle pin removal tool (and even that might not work). Worry about engine swaps last. Obviously this depends on your level of experience, but its a lot easier to learn about the car by fixing the stock parts (that you're going to keep) first and then adding new shinies. I'm by no means telling you what to do (and I'm relatively new to this myself), just suggesting. That L6 motor you have in there has some potential to it, and unless its already screwed up, they're near bulletproof. I kinda regret jumping the gun a while ago and getting an extra L28ET. It now sits in my garage doing a great job of keeping the house from blowing away. Hopefully I'll be rebuilding it soon, but I'm getting the rest of the previously mentioned items out of the way first. I probably could have held off on the purchase and better spent money elsewhere. I wish you the best of luck in your project. Hopefully we may see each other down the road at a local Z meet (whichever ones exist... so far I only know of CTZCC) if we can get our cars back on the road.

Me? Spray out the latch mechanism with WD-40 to see if I could fix it? Noooo... Oops. Yeah, I did that. And come to think of it, the more times I've done that it has gotten worse than when i first bought the Z. The mechanism IS turning all the way though, the problem is when its in the "closed" position, whatever "catch" that's inside will not keep it in that position if any pressure is applied. I've tested this multiple times with a thick screwdriver. Hopefully its gummed up from the oil as you say, and not too worn. That's interesting though about the graphite. I always thought the dark residue in there was weargrease. I'll have to remember this for when I clean it out and reinstall it. The interior plastic paint I'm using should NOT chip though, if the labels on the cans are accurate. I've used two products for this, Krylon Kolorbond and Duplicolor Vinyl/Fabric spray paint (from Autozone). Both are supposed to not coat their targets exactly like regular paint, but actually DYE the plastic, so the color becomes part of the plastic. Pretty cool. The Duplicolor was used on my seats, and it did an excellent job of turning the vinyl trim black, and as much as I've messed with it, the color will not rub or flake off. As for the inner fabric portion of the seat, it worked terribly. The color went straight to the bottom inner portion of the fabric but failed to dye the fuzzy upper area. Perhaps its because I tried to use light gray for that area, though, which made the final color a milky brown. I might as well test the black on that area now, because the seats are going bye-bye sometime in the near future anyway. Here is an example of the difference And here's the original color on the flipside. This panel was sun-bleached, spotted, and stained before I painted it. This new coating does NOT feel like its going to chip. And I can definitely get away with just welding in patches on the floorboards. The only reason I've seen fiberglass as a feasible temporary fix is that the rust holes I've cut out are only about the size of a silver dollar, at their worst. From what I've seen on other Z's, I lucked out big time in comparison (even if it still sucks for me). I also got my proportioning valve in the mail today! Yay! I can finally hook my brakes up and bleed them! But wait. Aw crap... I looked at the caps for the master cylinder and realized something. They're wired. And I'm guessing there's a switch inside each of those plastic probes that detects my fluid level. The problem? It looks like there's still some residual "brake-fluid-turned-grease" coagulated inside. Something tells me that might interfere with operation... ugh... I also have to hope that my current master cylinder (still bathing in a bucket of DOT3) is going to hold up. The seals looked good, but only time will tell if I should have just ordered a new one.

Oh yeah. I've welded a few small things before, but that was years ago in school. I forget exactly what it was though. Some silly tech ed project. I have no doubt in my mind that I can learn to weld well enough in a short amount of time, the only thing that's stopping me is that I don't have the money to drop on a welder. My uncle and an auto shop that I used to work at both have welders, and I'll probably be using theirs once the car is street legal again. Right now though I need a temporary fix, as both locations I will need to drive a decent distance to. I'd rather take the Z to my uncles, honestly, because he's been working on cars his whole life and is very ingenuitive when it comes to fabricating parts. I trust him more than any other mechanic, and I'm sure he could teach me a whole lot more. That and I could spend the night, and my aunt is a good cook! lol. Yes, the interior is going to be painted. Out with the brown, in with the black. That krylon plastic/vinyl paint has worked awesome so far in converting a lot of my interior trim pieces from the stock brown color, so it should work well for the rest. Not only was black a good personal choice, but also any stains that won't come off the brown are completely covered up. I'll be using 3M rubber undercoating on the floors for now, as I don't have POR-15 on hand and as you said I don't want to try to remove the stuff when I get to welding later. Whenever I get the floor patched, down the road I think I'll be putting in some sound deadening mats. Otherwise the car is going to sound really "tinny" when going down the road. I also really hope I don't have to get a new latch mechanism for the passenger side door. It will not latch closed anymore. I tried moving the striker on the body frame outboard, but that's not the issue. Something inside the actual mechanism is allowing the latch to come undone with even a light pull.