Ironhead

I finished the basic structure of the dash/instrument panel. Nothing fancy...pretty stark...but all I really needed was a place to mount a digital dash and a few buttons/switches. I am going to have the aluminum portion powder coated crinkle black. Car won't have air conditioning, but I did install a small heater element that will function primarily as a windshield de-fogger. I might put one vent in the dash to serve as a minimalist heater. I am trying to keep things basic and simple, but I remember a morning track event that was cold and foggy. Some guy took a "real racing car" out on track with no windshield de-fogger, and almost wiped himself (and several others) out because he couldn't see a damn thing. So I figured that inclusion was mandatory. Dash comes out very easily...just a lot of 6/32 button heads that screw into rivet nuts to remove the CF panels...in case I need to work on anything behind the dash. Or, the whole assembly will lift out if I remove the larger button heads on the top. Not being new to modified cars, I am pretty sure accessibility will come in handy down the road.

Makes sense....I don't know why I didn't visualize this myself. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work. I was thinking that the relay needed a separate switched on/off to close it....but it doesn't. Thanks man!

I have narrowed color down to two or three options...all non-metallics...very saturated colors. The leading contender is an aqua-green very similar to the color surrounding the "L" in your avatar.... I might still change my mind though. I am quite a ways from spraying paint. I hear what you are saying about the intertia switches. I know a relay would be the obvious solution, but I am wiring the car with a PDM, which is designed to replace fuses and relays. Yes I could have a signal from the PDM trip a relay, but that would also require another hot power wire coming from the PDM, and it has limited channels unless I want to spend the big bucks on a 32 channel unit...which I don't. One of the advantages of a PDM is simplified wiring...and adding relays defeats the purpose to some extent. But you are correct, and the dual switches have been bugging me for a while. It just isn't the "right" way to do it. I will probably change plans two or three more times before I am through this. I wish there was an inertia switch with more capacity, but I have searched high and low and failed to find one.

Xmas in October! Ordered wheels in June and just today received them. They are Jongbloed model 214, 17X10 front and 17X11 rear. I was going for the '70s and '80s motorsport look, with gold centers and polished rims. My daughter thinks they look "ghetto". Now if I can get tires mounted, I can actually put the car on the ground and move it around! First time in 18 months. Thanks for looking....

But again...where is the evidence/documentation that these coatings offer significant benefit? I follow engine building very closely, and I have never seen such evidence, although that doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist. We car people tend to chase fads and jump on the bandwagon of all the latest things that come out, and much of it IMHO is little more than clever marketing. I remember 15 or 20 years ago, it was "cryo treating". No one would install a crank or connecting rod or other critical component on their pet engine unless it had first been soaked in liquid nitrogen...."cryo treating" was supposed to relieve stress in the part or re-align the molecules or some other such crap. I remember when someone's engine threw a rod or something...all the pundits would ask "did you cryo treat it before assembly?" I don't think anyone even does that anymore....or if they do....I haven't heard about it.

Ceramics are generally glass hard....I can definitely see how pieces of the coating breaking loose in the engine would cause damage.... Scoring the cylinder walls if nothing else. There is also the issue of confirming/quantifying any benefit these coatings provide. Again, I have no first hand experience. I imagine this will be one of those issues where there are believers and non-believers. Sort of like oil choice....

If you are talking about internal engine coatings, like for piston tops, I have no first hand experience but I did a lot of research about them for an engine build a couple years back. For a while, pretty much all "high end" engine builds used them but more recently many builders have stopped using them. The issue is the benefit gained by these coatings vs the risk of some of the material flaking off and damaging or destroying the engine. Many builders regard the benefits as minimal, and the risks significant, and thus do not use them. After everything I read and what I was told, I too decided not to use any internal coatings. I don't remember for sure, but I think the pivotal opinion for me was from one of the engineers at one of the major piston manufacturers. I had a long talk with him, and he was of the opinion that these coatings were just a marketing gimmick, that "no" high end racing engine builders use them, and that these coatings can and do come off and cause engine damage. Just one man's opinion, but he convinced me that the risks far outweighed the benefits. If you are interested in external coatings, for headers, turbos, etc....I had my header SwainTech coated about 12 years ago. Hard to quantify how well it ever worked, but I can say in that period of time that a whole lot of it has flaked off.

Genuine vintage racing cars with history bring big money these days, because rich guys are buying them to race at the Monterey Historics and other events. The high "snob appeal" vintage races require genuine cars from the day with history. Replicas need not apply. Having been Paul Newman's car....is of course icing on the cake. I wager that car will bring north of $250K when it sells. It sure doesn't look as cool as the IMSA GTU versions....which had much bigger wheels/tires and fender flares. CP rules were much more restrictive.

That definitely would have been a cheaper approach. I probably wasted at least 20-30 feet of tubing with screw-ups bending mine.

If you are bending it yourself, I think anyone who has done it will tell you, calculations are kind of meaningless because you are virtually guaranteed to have to scrap a lot of tubing because of do-overs. Maybe not so much if you are just doing a simple hoop, but definitely so for a complete cage. If someone out there can nail the complex, multi-plane bends in one try, they are a better person than me.... I would say for a simple hoop you "might" get it in one try...depending on how perfectly you want it to fit. For a main hoop you will need a single piece about 13' long. But a single hoop is of no value without back braces and cross braces, and what you will need there depends on your design.

The key thing IMHO boils down to rust and the general condition of the body. You cannot determine this through a casual inspection. Get a bright flashlight and plan to get dirty. Look underneath the car in the area below the driver and passenger floorboards. Evidence of severe corrosion and/or shoddy repair includes things like rivets, holes, tape (not kidding), extra layers of sheet metal, bondo or fiberglass. Also look carefully at the area in the engine bay below the battery. Check the rocker panels, particularly around the wheel wells, and look for holes, bubbling paint....or obvious rust. If you are looking at a neglected 1971 Z and are not seeing any rust, odds are huge that you don't know what to look for or are not looking closely enough in the right places. When I was in the market for a Z, I found a shell for sale (advertised as "99% rust free") that was a few hours from me. I had a relative near it and asked him to go "pre-screen" the car for me. He did, said it looked good, no rust, etc. So I drove down to look at it. Well, both the floor pans were completely rusted out...gone...and had been replaced with galvanized hardware store sheet metal that was pop-riveted over the holes. Same thing the rear spare tire well....completely rusted out and covered with riveted sheet metal. Also...the lower areas of the car were covered with pin holes and bubbled paint. My relative I sent to look at the car wasn't an idiot, but he failed to see any of this. These cars are very prone to rust, and the problem is that when it started to appear most of them were several years old and not very valuable. Properly repairing rust is so involved that very few of them had the cancer fixed and it has had years to continue to spread. I mention all this because unless you are handy, can weld and work sheet metal yourself, and want a long term project, significantly rusted cars are a deal breaker. Just getting the rust repaired properly involves so much labor that hiring a pro to do it would cost more than the car is worth. There are rust free and nearly rust free cars around, but in my case I looked at over a dozen and drove to a desert area before I found one. My advice? Find someone who really knows cars and is willing to get dirty to look it over with you.

Some very good advice here... I am doing a similar project...building an LS3 powered track car from a 260Z. For me, the build was at least half the point, so I wasn't going to buy someone else's finished project, although that definitely would make the most sense financially. This is an expensive project, more than I expected it to be, and I am far from finished. I am my own worst enemy as far as costs are concerned, because I do not like to half-ass things. The road racing tube frame sounds like a good idea at first, and the entry price is right, but try to imagine what would be involved in making some sort of usable car out of that...starting with completely fabricating a body to fit it. I personally would not know where to begin... And if you want the fastest possible car for the money, there is no question that the best place to start is simply to buy a late model low mileage 'Vette. They don't hold value extremely well, so really nice ones are available to good prices. I have a sneaky suspicion that even with an LS engine and mods up the ass, I don't think my car in the end will lap as fast as a well driven late model Vette. But's that's ok, like I said for me the build is half the fun. Also be aware that any high end Z car build when finished will be worth far less than the builder put into it. Just the nature of the game.

I had a few weeks where I wasn't really able to work on the car. When I got back on it, I started working on fabbing up the upper dash panel. I had trouble trying to mock things up with cardboard, specifically trying to figure out where to put the bolt holes so that everything lined up. I wound up fabbing the piece up with clear acrylic, which made the task vastly easier. Then I just transferred everything to aluminum and cut it out. The plan (currently) is to weld a tab to the front of the piece, onto which will attach CF panels on which to mount a digital dash and the various switches and controls. That will involve aluminum welding, which I screw up a lot, so we will see how it all goes. Thanks for looking.

Yikes.... You are a brave man, but glad to see someone has the courage to bring it back!

I think any car that is going to be tracked should run a cooler. Having said that, from what I have read any LSX that is being tracked should probably be dry sumped as well. I guess they put them in Corvettes for a reason....

Yeah...I put mine up a couple of inches higher than ideal....to leave room for exhaust. I quickly found that everything is a compromise.

The height was mainly what I expected to be the problem. I am also sort of into the E30 BMW scene, and there have been a few swaps into those of BMW V-8s and V-10s of DOHC design. They are freakin huge. In contrast, the LSX engines drop right in by comparison. But of course, putting a small-block Chevy into a BMW gets the purist's panties all in a bunch....

I just read through your project...sounds really good....definitely pushing the envelope. Might be a dumb question, but are you sure the Coyote will even fit? The LSX engines fit because they are a pushrod design and thus quite compact, but OHC V-8s tend to be extremely bulky. I mean, I know anything can be made to fit, but won't it be a major challenge?

The biggest problem as I see it is that the cell is in the rear crumple zone of the car. But so was the stock tank, and so is your cell under the floor. Most newer cars put the fuel supply over the rear axle/under the rear seat area, so it is protected by the rear subframe in a side impact and is out of the rear crumple zone. But this is all but impossible in the Z. Many have scoffed at the steel frame structure I enclosed my cell within, and it is heavier than absolutely necessary to support the cell. But the goal was to have a degree of crush protection. As I see it, the only advantage to installing the cell under the floor as you describe is to have a layer of sheet metal between you and the cell in the event of a rupture. But constructing a sheet metal enclosure around the cell (as required by every racing organizer I know of) more or less accomplishes the same thing. There is no perfect solution, unfortunately.

It is the II Much. It took me months to get it after paying them in full for it, but not THAT long. I inquired after waiting some time without receiving it, and I didn't really like the tone of their reply. Sort of like I will get it when I get it, after they had my money for months. I think they know that no one else sells something like this, and their attitude reflects that. If it does what it is reputed to do, I suppose it will be worth it. I really REALLY do not want my garage to constantly reek of gas fumes.

I got the fuel cell, fuel filter, and vent system plumbed. I also mocked all the cell firewall cover parts into place just to make sure everything fits as I had intended. Also got the inertia switches installed. I had to use two of them because my fuel pump can draw more current than one is rated to handle. No wiring done yet. I am going to try to get everything mocked into place before I start that nightmare. Thanks for looking.

In my case, I have found the fuel cell mount, cover, plumbing, etc have taken up most of the rear cargo area. I thought I was still going to be able to get a full sized battery back there....but since a lead acid battery requires a "housing" of its own....there is not enough room. So I am committed to using a lithium battery, even though I didn't want to go that route. My fuel cell could have been lowered or shifted a bit to leave more room....but that would have brought about different challenges. At the end of the day, these are just very small cars, at least by today's standards.

Thanks Nelson, that is very helpful... I keep going back and forth. I was thinking for a while I was going to use the YZ kit, but then kind of swung toward the Rocket Bunny just because it uses less fiberglass and is more of a "minimalist" approach. So...I dunno...but I am going to have to make a decision pretty soon.

Thanks Never... I have also been considering Retro Spec...and ZTrix too. I guess more than anything I am looking for opinions of these flares from guys who have installed them. All of these parts are fairly expensive, and it's hard to get much of a quality assessment from internet pictures.

Has anyone here had any experience with the Pandem/Rocket bunny flares/body kit for the S30? I am not so much asking about the styling, I know it is kind of controversial (I actually think it looks OK). I am just in need of some sort of wide flares pretty soon and am considering this kit. I don't think most of the more subtle flares will work in my case as I am using 315 wide tires in back and 275s in front. I am wondering about the kit's basic quality, fit, etc....if anyone has any experience or input. Thanks.