rags

Nope.

Hey Tim, Good to hear from you! Love the Capri project!

I'm in as well.

At least 3 240's and an old Bug just sitting in the garage?? We're gonna need more pics man!

Where in NJ are you? Are you looking for something that is modified or bone stock? Joe

I had a sporatic loss of assist in my system which drove me crazy. One day I realized it was happening when I had the directional on but only when the light was actually on. Seems I tapped the power signal to the directional circuit and the fluctuation in voltage when the light was on was enough to shut off the power steering motor. Moved the power signal and all is good! Joe

Good to see you back at it, Bob. Has it really been that long since you brought the stroked L6 up to NJ for Jimmy? So apparently it seems you have a summer to figure out a plan that will allow you to keep her. I'd get working on that before the engine come back out Joe

Six days later and we are ready for the media blaster!

Bumpers would not be part of this discussion as I was speaking solely about a stripped shell. But now that you mention it, the heavier bumper do in fact make those bumpers stiffer than a 240 bumper, don't they?

Those were just 2 examples of how the early cars differ from the later cars. One example that clearly shows how the 77-78 cars are made more structurally sound is how the seats are mounted. The later cars seat mounts are boxed from the trans tunnel to the rocker boxes. If you really want to see how how much more metal is used in the 77-78 cars, just weigh a stripped car. I don't have an exact figure but I do know that the 77-78 cars are substantially heavier that the 70-76 cars. I have stripped both. IMO, Nissan would only make the cars heavier to make them stronger. Joe

Ever try to use a 77-78 door on an earlier car? How about a lower rad support? That won't work either. IMO the 77-78 chassis is a much superior chassis for stiffness than the early cars. Joe

There are many improvements that the 78 will have over the 76. Windows, door strikers, wiring and overall chassis stiffness by improved design are a few. For a V8 car, I would definitely choose the 78. Joe

Keith, I have chemical stripped all of the cars with the exception of the last one which was media blasted. I've had very good luck with the chemical stripped cars. The only advice I can give is clean, clean, clean! Oh, and all of the cars had flash rusted after being stripped. Obviously all of the flash rust was removed via sanding before being hit with any plastic or priming. I'm no way a professional body man and have only done body work on my cars as a hobby. I guess I'll find out how lucky I am with the media blasted copper car in a few years lol As for original cars doing better, we shall see. This is the first original Z car I have ever owned! All of the others had had their share of modifications and back yard mechanic repairs done to them. I'm also not to good at finding solid cars as I have only found 2 in the last 30+ years Small update on the 260, I did find that the car has had some body work done to the rear valence. Looks like it took a light hit in the back under the bumper. The body work was done terribly and I'm thinking I might want to replace the panel from about 2-3 inches below the rear tail lights, down.

Keith, Original rust protection, ha! This will be the fourth car I have done that gets all of it's original paint removed. The first one was done back in 85 and still looks fantastic. Granted, none of the cars ever see inclement weather. As for back halving the car, not gonna happen. I don't punish the drive line enough to warrant it. And with the automatic direction I'm heading in, confirms the decision not to change the rear drivetrain even more.

Well as some of you know, I purchased another 260z on 4/6/14 to take the place of the original RYSRKT I had for 29 years and just sold to EvilC. This one is 54k, automatic, one owner example that I planned on making a driver and keeping original. That lasted less than a week. So the plan so far is to strip the car down and have it media blasted for the eventual color change. This car is green and it really doesn't do anything for me. I have stripped all of the hardware from the doors and sent them, along with the hood, fenders, cowl, inspection lids, fender extensions, and lower front valence to the body shop. The engine has also been removed and the engine compartment has been stripped of all of it's supporting bits. I have also removed the front suspension and associated hardware and built a temporary structure that the front of the car can sit on that is supported by casters. Makes moving the car around the garage a snap! This week I'll concentrate on stripping the interior. Still on the fence about pulling the rear suspension but probably will. I'm also still up in the air about what the powerplant will be although I am leaning towards a LSx with an automatic this time. If I can find an LS3 with an auto with wiring harness and ECU for under 7K that is the way I'll go. The bodyshop called me this morning to ask if I will be needing the emblem holes on the fenders and hood as he was about to weld them up. Glad he called! Also I'm super excited that he is already working on my shit! This one is going to go fast boys. Stay tuned Joe

Hi Mike, what is the reason for swapping the valve covers side to side?

A beefed up rail is only as strong as it's weakest point, which is not very strong. Ever see a sway bar mount get pulled through the rail? With all of the cutting you have done to the inner fender, IMO not to use the crossmember as a mounting point or replacing the Datsun rail altogether is going to be a recipe for disaster. Again, just my opinion.

Be meticulous, do your own homework and never follow the masses because "everyone does it like that". You'll save money, go faster and break less stuff in the long run

Where are all of these NJ guy's coming from?! Anyway, are you guys looking to learn how to tune or are you just looking to pay someone to tune for you? Joe

Who do we know in Japan? That's the only place I haven't tried yet. Nothing in North America, Europe or Australia.

Come on guy's you are missing the point. Why post everything about anything in one topic? Isn't that a blog?? I think we are taking the "search, it's already been discussed 8654678755 times before on here" a little too far. This forum is still about Z cars and last I checked, they haven't made an S30 in 36 years so yes, I'm sure everything has been discussed before. If we are going to use HybridZ as a reference point only, we should just have all the threads locked and be done with it. IMO the only thing the mega threads do it give a poster a way to circumvent the search nazis. Can we go back to the way things were when everyone was happy to talk freely on here? Don't get me wrong, there is certainly reason to moderate the board but basing people because they didn't search? To me if the question can be answered easily, why not just answer and them say in the future searching would provide your answer quicker? Kinda like being a good neighbor And yes, PM'ing also circumvents the search nazis. Anyone answer a PM with "search, it's already been discussed 8654678755 times before on here"? Didn't think so. Joe

Didn't mean to call you out specifically. There are lots of threads that fall into this category. Joe

What has happened to this forum? I mean we have had 6 new topics started in 2014 and one is Sunny posting about his car in a magazine! In 2014 I think Keith has 6 new topics alone on his "Looking for a Mentor" thread. Can we get back to creating a new topic for each topic we are speaking about instead of creating these gazillion page topics? It's really a pet peeve of mine but I'm sure it would help out anyone who comes here for the first time and does a search. Having 3 or 4 topics that cover EVERYTHING pretty much defeats the purpose of the forum. I'm sure I will be bashed for writing this or have it removed completely but I'm a big boy and can take the fallout Joe

Nice build! Waaaaay to close to what I have lol. And to add to the topic, I installed the LT's for a few reasons. Dropping the exhaust with the shorties was a bear. Getting to the collector flanges was difficult to say the least and on Clives car with 3" downpipes, virtually impossible. IMO the LT's sound is much better than the shorties. Stainless looks waaay better than the coated shorties. And they produce more power. I'm not going to get sucked into the "how much more power" discussion, but there is an increase. Joe

Talk to EvilC. We have done many different programmable systems and could possibly help. The issue I see here is we don't know what the rest of the combination looks like. If the car runs and drives, having a turbo motor that is a little rich is a good thing! Why would you be trailering the car and what exactly are you trying to fix?