Sleek Z

To the original starter of this Thread and ALL Couple of years ago I started creating what I call a Z CAR SHOWCASE photo display at my ZPARTS.COM website, divided into a lot of sub galleries devoted to excellent examples of customized Z cars, mostly taken by myself at shows and some of my customer's cars. I have a sub gallery there titled "Customizing" under which is an "Interiors" gallery of aprox 12 photos that might inspire many of you to new heights of ambition in your interior customizing projects. There you will see green cloth, red leather and dyed plastic interiors as well as "maxed" white sound systems and enough toggle and rocker switches with ready lights to equal anything the Apollo space mission capsual had on board. Direct URL to my Z CAR SHOWCASE is http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html To locate the Photo Sub Gallery menu stucture click on the square icon at far left on the control panel strip to locate the "Customizing/Interiors" gallery group. Enjoy, Sleek Z

Jason As semi interesting as Hollywood Motorsports' original mid 1990's advertising shots may have seemed way back when, I found them way too tacky looking and sub parr for my tastes when the designer and I first set out to market the conversion kit on my site so I refused to publish them in any ADs I created for it. May have dented his ego a bit, but mine felt right on track with no regrets. The good luck was that one of my customers, which had a stage II kit installed on his roadster Z project, called up one freez'in afternoon to ask whether I'd like to see his car now that it was freshly painted yellow and out of the body shop. While he froze to death in the windy chill in the street in front of my shop, I quickly set up the shots in what turned out to be just the right angle and quality of light and "worked" all the "round Robin" photo angles to death, most of which were taken from a 12' ladder so I could maximize the drama of the yellow car with a dark background all around it. For my 30 minute effort the owner and I were rewarded with a knock out set of photos of his car, the best of which you can now review in the new photo display. About the problems in viewing the Convertibles gallery. Don't adjust your TV set just quite yet. I am recreating the same problem with FireFox and Safari on the my Mac I can see that the problem is not just at your end using Linux & Firefox. I have passed along your experiences to the programer that is developing the Flash/JAVA based program for me. He's usually prompt in looking into these type of glitches so most likely it'll be fixed within the coming week. Thanks again for the heads up on this one.

Demo v4 of my new Z CAR SHOWCASE display project just went up Nov 26th. Direct link to it is http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html There's one really great shot of Kansas based Melanie Barkley's wheel standing 240Z in the Racing Z Cars photo gallery as well as a decent one of Ron Jones's older car during a night time launch down in Arkansas, but I really need some great new action shots to add to that gallery. Can any of you here help out with great shots of your cars at the strip that I can publish? If yes, please send them to me at photos@zparts.com Turbo Meister. Finally put a name to the car and engine that I photographed several years ago a the MSA Nationals. Please contact me directly so I can get some back ground text to go with the photos of you car that I have now up in the V8 Engine and Racing Z Cars galleries of the Z CAR SHOWCASE. dmanzo57 Is your car a dark blue? I may have a photo of it taken at the Z Fest in Fremont several years ago. I'd like to get in touch with as many SF Bay Area and NorCal Z Dragster owners as possible because I intend to start showing up at you drag runs to knock out some great shots if possible. Please email me your Sac contact info for my records if interested to be "in the loop" in the future. Anybody know if BILL MARTIN is on this Forum? He's got a couple of interesting 2+2 Z dragsters down south in Alabama way, but I can't seem to track him down online anymore. Thanks Much, Eric Neyerlin - Z CAR photographer and owner of ZPARTS.COM

Nov 27, 2005 Annoucement: The "Custom Tail light Swap" visual reference page at ZPARTS.COM has been moved to a new webserver URL. Please bookmark if for future reference if you follow this topic thread often. You can now find a new updated version (10 new photos added) of the "TAIL LIGHTS SHOWCASE" in the sub gallery within the new Z CAR SHOWCASE online visual reference project that I am building at ZPARTS.COM at the following URL. http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html A couple of years ago I started this topic thread. From what I am told, it has long held the all time record for a Topic Thread with the most views and replies at HybridZ Forums. Thanks Guys. Nice to know that therehas been so much interest in this topic. Due to the great interest in the topic at the time, I created a visual reference archive to Z Car Tail light Customizing concepts and ideas to help support this thread. Years later this reference section is still one of the top ten most popular sections on my site so I thought that I better inform this thread that my "Custom Tail light Swap" visual Showcase is now being moved to a new web URL as part of a major reorganization of my parts selling business website and other personal future goals. Again, the direct URL to the Z CAR SHOWCASE is http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html Hope you find the the my new Z CAR SHOWCASE a useful reference source for future Hybridz forum discussions. Enjoy

Jason Regarding photos of the yellow Hollywood Z Spyder Kit in the Z CAR SHOWCASE (ZCSC) display, I am the photographer that took all those photos. If you see them being used to advertise the kit on the internet, other than on my site, I'd appreciate a heads up on where you've seen them because I suspect the person building the kit may be using them without my permission to sell it elsewhere without my knowledge, possibly on eBay. Note, the pic of your tube'd front end Z project that's up in the Tilt Front end page at http://www.zparts.com/showcase/bodykits/S301pc_front/tiltfrt_sample.htm will eventually be moved into the ZCSC display, but I have not decided on what gallery to publish it in. Any suggestions? You have enough similar photos of your project that I could build a gallery around to showcase your project's concepts and solutions? ___________________________________________ BELOW IS FURTHER REPLY TO JASON, BUT NOT STRONGLY RELATED TO Z CARS so most here may want to stop reading further unless you are into computer tech and or want to know more about my new Z CAR SHOWCASE photo display project. Jason, you always give me solid and useful feed back on tech issues. Most appreciated. So SUSE is your favorite flavor of choice in Linux Land these days or just the package that you are testing at the moment? Is Red Hat still the big contender or not these days? I have intermittently encountered same problem of hang up related to clicking on the thumbnail bar when viewed in one or more Mac or Win browsers, but not often or consistently. It's happening more with newest Demo version 4 than in past demo versions so I need to look into it. The Z CAR SHOWCASE (ZCSC) display being Flash & JAVA based, there can be many issues involved when someone's machine runs into a display or function problem while viewing it. As time allows, I will do my best to address major bugs and viewing problems reported by visitors so I hope many will report problems that they encounter. At minimum, Flash Player 7 is requred to view the display, but the newest Flash Player 8 will show more features in display and probably less viewing problems like you mentioned. __________________________ More DETAILS on the Z CAR SHOWCASE display project. One year ago I contracted an Indian Flash developer based in Ireland, to customize my basic Z CAR SHOWCASE display concept. We now have so many whiz bang features built into it that it's increasingly difficult to address all bugs after each new program update. Although, not yet revealed in current demo 4 of the ZCSC display, eventually; 1. Z car enthusiasts will be able to subscribe to the growing display (now 400 images, 2000 projected within one year) as an RSS feed (how's that for "forward thinking"?) 2. Use it's PayPal based shopping cart to purchase photo prints of their cars at events that I cover in the future. 3. Leave online viewable public comments or questions related to each photo, hopefully relevant to other Z owner's interests. 4. Pan & zoom extra large technical documents such as full size scans of factory wiring diagrams and "how to" tech illustrations such as Terry Oxendale has sent me several of in the past of CV axle swaps and brake conversion mix & match experiments. 5. Download what I call "Z Car Art" images with or without monthly calender overlays in sizes appropriate for use as computer screen "wall paper" images. 6. In the future Z car owners with a set of "class act" Z car related photos will be able to upload their images into select, password protected "user" showcase galleries. 7. A "Full Screen" version is in the works with even more "Bells & Whistle" features, but before I can demonstrate most of them, I will need to shop around for a more forward thinking web hosting company, because my very reliable hosting service of 7 years is just not keeping up with the technology changes on the internet that I will need in the future. Thanks much for the feedback Jason. Again, direct link to the Z CAR SHOWCASE display project demo 4 version is at http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html

A contact of mine just sent me a top notch shot of the #33 Bob Sharp car in action a few months ago at an east coast track where he was also racing at. According to him the car was originally raced by Bob Sharp as a "240Z" and later by Paul Newman as a "280Z". It was 100% restored in 2002 and now is owned by a prominent New Hampshire businessman. That shot is now up for viewing in the Racing Z CarsRoad Racers sub gallery in my recently updated Z CAR SHOWCASE. Link to that unique photo display is at http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html I'd not deem this car to have any particularly unique body kit or flares on it. Pretty much stock with painted over cheap? head light covers, riveted on, chopped aftermarket chin spoiler and some modest front & rear flares common on many S30 cars seen in the 70s & 80s. I believe MSA still sells the same flares today. In fact, I believe I have a set of two used ones on a shelf at my parts shop in case anyone wants them. $30. bucks takes the pair. (email me direct at eric@zparts.com if interested) As for quick, high quality, hassle free screen captures without all the typical hassle of getting simple things like that done under Windows, no matter whether of a cropped area, active screen or entire monitor screen, my advice is "Just Get a Mac'. Just one of hundreds of cool features built right into the Mac's OSX operating system. Takes me less that 5 seconds to grab one and drop it into an email message, Word .doc or photoshop layer using a 3 key combo. Macs are just so "very cool" compared to windoze boxes, IMHO.

ZISIZIT of Nevada sent me an original brochure long ago. Several months ago I scanned the full page front cover showing several views of the kit and 4 cylinder setup of the ZISIZIT kit. A scaled down version of that scan can be viewed in my new Z CAR SHOWCASE online reference archive that I have been developing at my site at http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html Look in the Body KitsZISIZIT sub gallery NOTE: a much expanded Demo version # 4 of the Z CAR SHOWCASE was just uploaded to the server yesterday. Aprox. 100 more images have been added. The body kits, Featured Cars and Racing Z Cars galleries have some particularly new and interestng cars and photos in them now. Feed back, pro or con, on the Z CAR SHOWCASE concept would be most appreciated. Send comments to eric@zparts.com

Guys Wanted to thank all for the good response so far to my "minimalistic" concept & solution post. Mike KZ's link to alternate brake and clutch alternatives was the most useful. I am most hoping that others will share more links to similar companies and products similar to what Mike pointed me to. Most of the ideas brought up have crossed my mind or I agree with, especially Owen's. When I have a bit more time I will address the pros and cons of several suggested to the point that I have thought them out so far. I have always been attracted to the rotary engine in a Z, but aesthetically, it does not look suitable to concept under consideration, but I must admit that I have not yet had the opportunity to study one up close to analyse what on the engine could be re routed to suit my goals so I'll keep it as a "maybe". So far, a FI V8 (V10 if I had the money) makes most sense to achieve the look I am after, but like most I'd prefer to use a Nissan engine in a Z. Last year someone sent me a 12 page write up and an entire CD of swap photos of a VH45 being installed in a bright red Targa racing class 240Z that was inspiring to review, but that engine is just way too wide to consider for my goals. So what I am saying is that an engine can be too small or way too large to look aesthetically balanced in an S30 engine bay. What I am seeking is a cosmetically simple looking engine of size that will not overly dominate the cleaned up engine bay nor look like like a bag of groceries tossed into a trunk. The Z engine bay is long and I think it needs an engine shape and length suitable balanced to those proportions that is not excessively tall. I still think there's potential to use the a EFI L6 for this project so my first minimalistic experiment in this direction may settle for doing something with the L6 so I can devote most of my effort to stylizing the rest of the engine bay by removing most visually ugly stock components and re locating them elsewhere. Please keep your comments and suggestions coming. btw, what happened to the old controls that allowed a person to include a photo within a post? I may want to add an marked up photo to illustrate some of my thinking here, but can not figure out how to include the image in the post like some have with the showcar from Japan. Please clue me.

I noticed the URL as being incomplete and tried to re edit the post, but online editing software would not change it in the displayed post. However, it does now work for me in my browser. The URL to the "The Predator" engine bay shot should read http://www.zparts.com/showcase/engines/pages/orangv8m.html

I am looking for solutions to creating a "Minimalistic" Engine Bay look? I've used hybridz's search feature on this question and have had no luck finding references to creating a "minimalistic" or "show quality" engine bay look. If anyone can point me to thread links here or elsewhere on the net that would give me examples or solutions or direct me to alternative parts related to my objectives listed below, I'd appreciate knowing about them from the collective knowledge and wisdom often found at HybridZ forums. I have long wanted to create a Z show car experiment that would feature, among other things, a super smooth surfaced & clean looking engine bay with virtually no clutter or common engine bay components visible, ie. engine wiring harness, brake master vac and brake cylinder, clutch cylinder, stock hood latch receiver, battery, stock hardware mounts, misc accessory brackets, fuel and brake lines and mount brackets, coil, etc. Put another way, I want to achieve a look wherein a highly detailed and customized engine appears to almost be suspended in mid air with very few external components appearing to connect to it from the visible engine bay area when viewed from most angles. To see one example of a showcar engine bay that has long inspired me, go to this link on my site, http://www.zparts.com/showcase/engines/pages/orangv8m.html Note: actual engine to be transplanted into my planned minmalistic looking Z car engine bay concept has not been decided on. RacerX's suggestion of the stylish Yamaha engine that came stock in some Ford SHO models has been one of my favorites. Extreme power will not be so important to me as aesthetics vs cost. Personally, I'd like to find a long, low looking design that could be altered externally to end up looking a bit like a tube or domed top shaped "rocket" engine after a certain amount of fabrication of cosmetic sheet metal covers were made to hide most ugly looking components from view or customize the aesthetic appeal of stock components All recommendations about what models of cars or engine's to investigate for my purpose would be most welcome, no matter how non traditional or off the wall they may be. I think I have already figured out solutions to removal or rerouting of most components I want to hide or relocate, but what to do about the ugly looking brake master vac, brake master cylinder and clutch cylinder has me stumped at the moment. What I am looking for are alternatives to the Nissan brake and clutch systems that will not require me to mount them on the firewall or large area of the engine bay. Are there other types of brake and clutch systems on other models of cars or for hot rod showcars that I could either mount on the inside area of the firewall, in the empty area below the windshield cowl, under the inspection lids or elsewhere that would give me reliable and safe replacement brake and clutch systems to use for my objectives? Currently, I have 6 straight Z car bodies here that I can use one of to experiment on so I have lots of optional bodies to experiment on. At the moment I am parting out a nicely preserved and straight, 76 280Z body that has excellent condition original paint in it's engine bay. After I strip it completely of all unboltable components, I hope to clean it up for reference photos, shot from many angles, to use later on as background images to create overlay illustrations over top the factory details for purposes of arriving at a final "minimalistic" look that will appeal to me. After I get all the photo angles and details of the cleaned up engine bay taken, I intend to publish them on my site as reference for others working on engine swaps and engine bay layout projects. OK, I really would appreciate all of your comments, suggestions and alternative brake & clutch parts source recommendations if you have any, no matter how unorthodox or unusual. Thanks much,

I can not give you any current tips for sources because I have not tracked where some reside these days, but I can clarify and muddle the issues for everyone a wee bit. Long ago the IMSA body kit of highest quality and cleanest old school look and refined detailing was the "Tildon" IMSA kit. Some swear that it should be spelled "tilton". It is my understanding that Jim Cook Racing bought the molds to that kit over 20 years ago, but apparently moth balled them because they've never featured them in the catalog to my knowledge. I extensively photographed and brokered for sale a Tildon IMSA rebodied G nose car with a somewhat modifed rear bumper mod to it years ago. The prints are all in storage and can not be shared at this time except one illustrative one that may interest some you. It is a small inset photo at top left at my gallery index page at http://www.zparts.com/gallery.html It ran 345x35x15's on 12" wide wheels at the rear and unknown tire size on 10" wide wheels at the front. Back in the late 80's ago I was contacted by a guy named Ron Emerson that had pulled molds from a set of Tildon flares who wanted to sell them. At the time, although tempted, I walked away from purchasing them from him. Fast forward to the year 2002 and up pops one of my customers and long time contacts into such things to tell me that he just ran across a guy named "Ron Emerson" with a set of Tildon molds and decided to buy them up as back ups to creating replacement flares for his own Tildon flared car which you can see a small portion of on my site at http://www.zparts.com/events/datfest99/99r8f03_m.jpg For those thinking about it, please do not ask to get in touch with this guy. He has told me many a time that he is far too busy to get involved in what he considers a money loosing project of making Tildon flares for others. However, this guy has been showing me some pretty fancy carbon fiber Z car replacement interior and exterior body part prototypes in the past year so, hey, maybe he'll reconsider and go for it later on. Regarding the Prima Donna kit and specifically the white one, I had a customer that was a personal friend of the designer and producer of that kit. He almost ended up buying the molds when owner offered them for sale, but instead an odd little man down the street, won out in the end and carted them off to a horridly small storage attic with claims that he'd be selling kits eventually. He promptly turned into recluse and hid the molds and himself from public contact and nothing has been heard of either for many years now. I have spoken with the creator of the Prima Donna several times in the past. My understanding is that there were a total of 4 turn key cars made and possibly several disassembled kits., but only 3 are known of these days, the white one formerly owned by Mike Oullette of SF, former employee at the Scarab factory, Alan Pong (black one) in Half Moon Bay area and a third and obscure red one originally purchased by someone in Sacramento, CA A long time customer/contact of mine, HC, came to me in 2000 asking if I could help in him purchasing a Prima Donna car. At the time, it was my understanding that neither MQ or AP were approachable about selling their cars, but to my surprise, HC contacted me a month later to inform me that he had purchased the white Prima Donna car from Mike Oullette. Several months later i hooked up with HC at the show in Palo Alto and afterwards we drove to photo location I had setup along the SF Peninsula where at I took extensive photos of the car from many angles under a non helpful setting sun situation that hampered me in getting the body detail and design photos that I was after. Since then I believe HC told me that he had sold the Prima Donna car but I forget to who he told me about. Might be the guy in Tennessee? One last comment. For years I have had in my position the original IMSA style, 280ZX race car molds for Frank Leary's white and green ZX race car, which some of you may have seen photos of in Z car racing history books. All total there are molds for the massive and dramatic looking front end with integrated air dam, R & L front flared fenders, integrated R&L door panels and dramatic IMSA style rear fender sections. I am now faced with a large relocation project to move my entire Z parts salvage yard before Mid February. Reluctantly, I plan to sell these molds to first person that offers a reasonable price for the present condition they are in if that buyer will pick them up in person at my Richmond, CA location. I doubt that these molds would be good for producing a commercial product but someone with some body working experience wanting to do a wild looking custom ZX project car probably would get pretty excited with the potential of producing a one off car from these molds. I am now actively searching for a SERIOUS buyer for these, so speak up soon or tell your buddies into 280ZX hybridz cars. Please DO NOT send me a PM about comments in this post because I seldom check my PMs. Email me direct at eric@zparts.com OK that's all I can think of to add at the moment. Eric Neyerlin - owner of ZPARTS.COM

Two years ago I worked up an illustration of an idea I had for side venting the modest height Z hood bulge. Shape of vent holes is not finalized in my mind, but I am leaning toward progressive large to small tear drop or oval shaped holes manually cut out from forward bulge area to rear. Depending upon color of car I had also envisioned finding or making decorative chrome or polished aluminum trim rings or "collars" for each cut out hole that would lay close to flush to the painted surfaces of the hood. You can see my concept illustration wherein the cut outs are not pictured at very large scale at http://www.zparts.com/showcase/sleekz/szconcepts/gnose1/gnose1d.html A variation of that illustration is in the "Illustrations" gallery of the Z CAR SHOWCASE demo v3 at http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zcsc/default.html Regarding the "special Datsun factory" hood bulge that Jason Jarvis posted, it seems to me that possibly "InterPart" (now out of business) also listed that for sale in it's old catalogs. Tweeks may also have sold it. Seems to me that if one wanted that design to look good that the entire original metal hood bulge would have to be cut out and an a complete custom fabricated "raised" metal bulge, with side vents added, would need to be tig welded into place and blended in professionally. Sleek Z

Thought I'd just alert you all that I have been contacted by another person that has completed a VH-45 engine swap into a 240Z body. This one is not turbo charged, but the guy has come up with his own interesting flavor of swap including custom built/cast headers and and bell housing. The guy is in New Zealand and limited by poor bandwidth so he is sending me all his project build photos on a CD via snail mail, which may not arrive for awhile. In the meantime he's managed to send me a few teaser shots which I hope to have up for viewing by this weekend after a very busy schedule of car part out tasks is completed on Saturday. Stay tuned. ps, Yuki Komiya has also been in touch recently and I hope to have more news and photos of his VH-45 project car later on in the month to add to the very popular feature section at ZPARTS.COM published last April. Sleek Z

Here's another example of a Corvette rear look added to a S30 body. Michael Spreadbury took this photo several years ago at the Woodburn, Oregon Drags and sent it into me for display.