JMortensen

What is with this "Time Attack" thing??? I've been doing these things for years and they've always been called time trials. Time "attack" just makes me think ricers. Kinda irritating

No, I meant the rocker where it extends underneath the dogleg. It's like a frame rail in the early Z. The original has this compound curve in it. I'm thinking rather than try to duplicate that, I'll just leave it open and weld the top part that's still in there. Definitely have to close the back end up.

Well I just went out and treated it with the Picklex20 http://www.picklex20.comwhich showed up today, and I need to get me some Zero Rust for the final coat. Zero Rust seems to be pretty highly thought of around here. The more I think about it the more I think I'm just going to leave the rocker open on the end. Anyone want to tell me that's a dumb idea before I weld it up???

Also wanted to ask if the black dum dum stuff was factory installed or if my geezer body dude did that. Doesn't seem like the best idea...

Well I cut some more yesterday, then did the other side today. This (I think) is the end of my cutting. After this its going to be treating the metal and then putting it back together. Here's the pics: Still not sure how to rebuild the back end of the rocker boxes. Any tips appreciated. Might just wing it since I'm doing the roll bar back there anyway.

Getting longer springs would be one idea for you, longer threaded adjusters is another.

On a Z the seat belt areas are INSIDE the rocker and up in the trans tunnel. I stick to the diff and crossmember, and on a hoist I go to the flat area behind the TC rod bucket and the flat area at the very back of the floor pan. Always watch the guy at the shop put your car on the hoist. Idiots always try to put the hoist at the front end of the fender and bend the crap out of it.

FWIW my best friend had this happen on his Z one day out of the blue. He'd touch the brake and nothing, then suddenly the car would skid to a stop. Of course this happened on his way to work in traffic. You can imagine how fun that was! Not sure how the reaction disk can fall out while everything is together. I thought you had to take the master off for it to fall out.

Go look under your ZX. There is no brace on your car.

That is a pretty poor example John. You've got how much racing experience vs Amir? Your struts cost more than his whole suspension I'm guessing, and how many shifts were there per lap... your sequential box cuts how much time per shift??? Really the driver is the biggest thing though. I once LAPPED a 96 911 Turbo in a 20 minute session at Buttonwillow. I don't know how much track time Amir has had and I'm not calling him a bad driver. If you drove both cars or if he drove both cars at least you would have removed the biggest variable...

Evidently Pop has never driven a Miata. Man is that a fun car.

That sounds pretty crappy. Welcome back.

But the plate on top is the part that connects to the car, and it only connects at the 4 bolts around the perimeter, right? Or are you saying that you didn't cut the whole center section out, just the slots. I suppose if you did that the center 4 would be holding onto two little strips of metal, but I wouldn't trust that to hold the suspension in the car. You're right though, it definitely looks better on top. The only camber plate I've seen for a Z that I am pretty sure is designed to go on top is the Carrera plate.

Uh, yeah, they do install underneath AFAIK. I hope that car has a plate or some sort of bracket underneath. Otherwise those plates are being held in by the 4 bolt heads only. I've see the plates installed like that a couple times on different cars. Never seen a "My camber plate popped out of the strut tower!!!" thread, but I sure as hell wouldn't do it that way. Here's a pic of mine, not nearly as clean as the red car:

Well we know it was hotter than hell, but I suppose there's more to the story... you gonna share?

While I have no personal experience here, I did hear a guy recently say that the spot welds that hold the strut tube to the spindle at the bottom can get knocked loose and tweaked which causes a big change in camber. He also said that he had fixed them by realigning and rewelding the tube in place. If you look at the suspension components you should be able to see a bent control arm. I don't think that's your problem though, because a bent control arm wouldn't bend out, so I think a bent control arm would be more likely to reduce the neg camber. Bent struts are also possible, not sure if you could see that problem visually. Seems like it would be really hard on the strut though, so I'd expect to see some leakage around the top of the strut if that were the case.

Here are new pics of the rust repair. Today was the first chance I had to open it up. Looks a little worse inside than it did outside. Lots of rust between the panels in there, which kind of makes me think I'll NEVER get to it all. Also the fender lip where there are two sheets folded over and spot welded is really rusty although it hasn't started bubbling anywhere yet. I don't think I can get any rust treatment stuff into that area. I think the only way to fix is to flare the car and cut the lip off entirely. I guess the good news is that the rockers are really clean aside from some spiderwebs. Any suggestions of how to deal with the rust between the panels? Should I just keep cutting until I expose all of it? I really don't want to cut the stuff in the door jamb area, and I think that I can spray that seam in front from both sides and take care of it, but some of the other areas in there are not that easy to get to. What about rebuilding the end of the rocker panel? Does it need that curved end like it had originally for strength, or can I just maybe weld a plate on the end and call it good? Any other tips or hints appreciated. Here's some pics: