rags

The reason for removing the dead-ended fuel rail is to try to cure the fuel starvation problem when the tank goes below half a tank and cornering hard. What was happening was as soon as the pump sucked some air, the only place that air could go was through the injectors. So instead of a small stumble while the pickup was uncovered, you had a big fall on your face condition until the air went through the injectors. Clive has also installed a fuel cell so we shouldn't see any of those issues next time at the track. FYI, my fuel rail is not dead-ended and with a stock 78 tank, experience none of the fuel starvation issues Clive was. Joe

Sure can. Drill holes in the panel and slip in the stock door clip. Presto. Attaches to the door like stock!

Pete is in the house! And the list keeps getting bigger

Ok I got an email from Pete today. He said the panels I sent him where "hammered beyond belief!". That really let the air out of my sail until he said he thinks he can still get a good mold out of them. He said it might take a little longer than he expected but ddn't say what that meant. I asked for a ETA so we will see waht he come back with. Joe

Straight from UPS: Scheduled Delivery: Monday, 09/12/2011, By End of Day Last Location: Arrived - San Pablo, CA, United States, Thursday, 09/08/2011 Anymore useless comments?

Donor door panels should arrive at Pete's place on Monday.

Sure look like early seats to me. Can you verify what I'm seeing in picture 1 on the far seat is the wheel you describe as controlling the recline? If so, early seat. Joe

Hmmmm

I did do some additional reinforcements in the rear to stiffen up there as well. Again 2x3 was used. This ties the trans tunnel to the rocker reinforcement. From there I go up the rear wheel arc to the strut tower. Still do not have the rear towers connected but I wanted something without interfering with the interior of the car. Joe

Pete, Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures when it was being done. The only thing that I can take pictures of now would be the round tube to the TC cups and how the round cut outs on the inner rocker panels are now blocked by the 2x3. This was done on the red 260 back in 85 by a guy that used to work for the old ZCenter in Clifton, NJ back in the late 70's. His name was Mike Janiak and I'd really love to find him today as he was a wizard with a modified Z car! The car is still as stiff as it ever was. Joe

With all due respect to JohnC, I have done the 2x3 tubing inside the rockerboxes and tied those to the TC cups with 1.5" round tubing. I have done nothing to the original flimsy frame rails under the floor and feel they are now just along for the ride. The car is super tight. I'm really interested in why the thought is that strengthening the rocker boxes is a waste of time as this is the location that holds the car together? Don't believe me? Cut through one of them whith a sawzall and see what happens Joe

Time to grab Clive's MS and swap it in to test.

Rear hatch glass is using the stock gasket with insert. Look at the last picture. Joe

Larry, the car you did is where I got the idea. Beautiful work! Joe

I'm going to attempt to make an airbox that gets secured to the pass side inner fender. It will be open to the rad support and incorporate a flat type of air filter instead of the round type included in the JCI kit. I'll post pictures once I start measuring and creating the template with cardboard. Joe

Here is one I just did for a co-worker.

It is for the door backing only. Think of it as a replacement for the cardboard part of the door panel. You will still have to finish off the door panel with whatever you want (leather, vinyl, cloth, etc). The picture I linked to is just a representation of what your finished product could look like. Obviously, you will have to supply your own speaker as well.

Book the hotel room for an extra night in Shannon, DP. I doubt you will be landing at JFK. At 6ft above sea level, I'm sure it will be flooded!

Hoho, I have you on the list. I got an email from Pete yesterday that he had some personal business to address, explaining the delay in my updating this thread. I will be sending him my donor door panels and a deposit this weekend. He will be setting up direct payment method so I do not to be the middleman. Keep you all posted.

Ken, Why are you using the 240 mount? The 280 mount doesn't leave room for horizontal error as it mounts to the inside of the stock frame rails. The 240 mount gives lots of room for error. We found that out with Clive's car.

Before moving the diff and trans around, why not make some cheep laser pointers mounted to magnets to see where the trans and diff are pointing? I picked up the laser pointers and magnets at Home Depot. Mounted a piece of 1/2" copper pipe to the magnet with a nut and bolt, and inserted the laser pointer into the pipe. Presto, magnetically mounted laser pointer! Put one on the diff pinion flange mount and one on the output shaft and with a piece of paper measure to distance between the laser dots on the paper. If the distance between the dots gets greater or smaller when the paper is moved closer and further from the trans, the diff to trans alignment is off. Laser traces should be as close to parallel as possible. Joe

Reversing the valve is only for testing . What you did was to show that there is a vacuum leak somewhere after the valve, probably the booster itself. Reversing the valve plugged the leak which fixed the high idle.

Bill, The door panels I am donating are from a 76 so the panels will be based on the early door. I put them up against my 78 panel and it will be easier for me to trim the early panel to fit the 77-78 than the other way around. To be honest, I forgot to ask about the door pulls. I will shoot him an email right now. Hopefully I can get him to respond directly to this post. ZT-R, I am using the Spal power window kit and in the picture above, so is Janaka. Joe

I'm not sure about the stock window crank as the hole will not be drilled for it. I think the fiberglass panel should be thin enough to be drilled for the crank but I'm not positive. Price should be about $250 a pair. I will confirm. Joe

The head bolts will bend and therefore not be reusable but this will do the trick for removing the motor. Joe