RebekahsZ

I'm going out to my shop right now to start building a strut brace!

Looks great. I've been following your build. What rear tire and who's flare is that?

A little more mock up of flares. I'm just scared to take a saw to my baby. I think it is going to be great with slicks, but will look like a log truck with any tire with small sidewalls. Oh well, that's the cost of a multi-purpose sports car! I ordered some MSA fiberglass flares to do a test fit of them (Justin at ZForceProductions says the screw/bolt pattern is the same). I don't really need the BAMF flares with my current tires and the car looks kind of silly from the back with them on. Will put off cutting until I see how standard flares will fit. Ordering hood pin kits from Speedwaymotors.com while waiting on the seat and flares.

That ain't no baby step-that's flat gettin' it done! If you decide to bail on the conversion (because you Z should be on the grass at Pebble Beach), I'll buy that motor from you to put in my truck. How many miles are on it? Oh yeah, I forgot to show you how weatherpack connectors work...you'll want to use them for your wiring, especially the 6-wire DBW pedal.

We're all pretty good a heckling a guy when he's down, aren't we? You said earlier that you were leaking from somewhere-where was that? WarlordZ spotted my big oil leak (a drop) either at the oil filter or at the oil pressure sender. If you look at my content, you will see that I warped a flywheel almost instantly after doing my conversion by trying to slip clutch at the track (I don't know how Sunny Z got away with all that clutch slippage he had at the Import Shootout). Once you have it working again, for high rpm launches, just dump it and let the chips fly where they may-easier to change a driveshaft or an axle than to drop the tranny and install a clutch.

It all depends on who you ask. The custom guys like the flares low, the racers like them high (the whole point is to avoid rubbing tire). I must admit, I also am nervous about them being so high-there are no threads that show people's measurements well, so I did everything by blowing up pictures, and getting advice from johnc's prior posts, MiKelly, and Sunny Z. Plus, I'm going to look at some non-BAMF flares before I cut. The BAMF flare is super wide and will take some getting used to. Hopefully, when I chop out the redundant metal and drop the ride height a little, it won't look so jacked up. I am going to have a portion of my dogleg removed for tire clearance. I love my spring rate-wouldn't change it.

Here's where I am at 1am. Dang, these flares are HUGE! Kind of overkill. They seem to be too high, but I've been warned by several guys that if I plan to drive it hard, hang 'em high, so I did. Still have to do all the cutting and welding - will call cage builder and see where he is on things. If there is time, I may try to get this to my body man this week to do the metal work on the flares, then install my rivet nuts and start playing with ride height. Placement right now is just for measurement purposes, but I'm afraid there is no going back. I did not have to trim these Z-Force Productions BAMF flares any at all.

Before you decide you need a rebuild, just make sure that the clutch pedal is FULLY disengaging the clutch.

Good idea, but a 28" tall, 10.5" wide slick doesn't fit inside the fender for a spring compression test. As my dad used to say, it's 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag. My issue is that I'm trying to split the difference between fitting the slick and not looking like a 4X4 when running street tires. I'm not sure it can be avoided.

Looking great Adam. Just made another TN Z-car buddy with Charlie (WarlordZ). He's legit-check his build page in Gen III. He came by the house today and I got to see his car. He borrowed my LS1 engine stand and my LS engine lift brackets. Won't be long before we have our own Z-fest for the region! He only lacks a T56. BTW-he likes pimp wheels too, lol. (I think that's the first "lol" I've ever typed)!

WarlordZ drove the 2 hours to come for a visit today. The Z-car that he will be using as a platform is beautiful. 80,000 original miles, looks like it was garage kept the whole time and maybe even stored on jackstands. Showroom quality car. Perfect floor pans, perfect interior, perfect engine compartment, even has very good paint. A/C car. No squeaks or squawks. Even has nice original zinc plating on the under-hood linkages and fittings. Car drives perfectly (if you don't mind stock spring rates-like riding on a cloud), has good power - just an overall, super nice car. First L6 car I've ever ridden in that didn't smell like a tailpipe. Nicest Z-car I have ever seen, in fact. Nicer than the 240z that the local Nissan dealer has on display in his showroom. I talked his ear off and had a ball. We put my Z on jackstands and we crawled all over and under it. Great guy -everybody should make him feel welcome. He has his LS2 engine and has ordered the JCI kit, but he needs a T56, if anybody has one laying around. This should be a nice build. Comparing our cars was like a scene out of Lady and The Tramp, or maybe Beauty and The Beast.

Thanks for all the help with my fender flares. You sent me lots of terrific photos, now I just have to find the courage to CUT.

Working on next fabrication challenge while waiting in line for the cage and waiting for the next seat to arrive for trial fitting. Started marking up for rear flares (scared to death to put a saw to my quarters). There seems to be a lot of variance on WHERE to mount ZG flares. Went thru the big fender flare thread, and nobody showed any pictures of HOW they measured their fenders, and couldn't find consensus on how high to mount them. Seems there are two camps on the forum: custom and race. Found pictures of my favorite racer's flare jobs and I'm trying to copy them, as the purpose for flaring is to gain clearance for race rubber. The only consistent landmark to measure from is the belt-line at the top of the fender arch-for once in my life I wish my car had a square corner somewhere to measure from, but alas, it doesn't. Just added a photo MiKelly sent me with a tape measuring down from the top of the fender to the top of the flare.

heavy85-I like everything you do, but simply a cosmetic suggestion: what would you think about installing the vents from the underside to reduce loss of your pretty paint job? Car is starting to look like something off a Mad Max movie. Only a humble suggestion; I know you are primarily thinking of function... Finally, what type of store did you visit to get the big piece of aluminum for your splitter, and how much did it cost?

You are talking jibberish. Post a pic or a video so we can figure out your question.

New idea: Try contacting forum member wfritts911. Buy him a round trip plane ticket, treat him like a king and feed him a couple of steaks. That kid could have you back together in a couple of hours-he can weld and fab, and he's fast. He's in college studying engineering, but he really wants to have a 4x4 shop. He did his LS swap under a tree in his yard in just a couple of weeks. He's your man.

Cutting out the towers only makes your problems worse. Seriously, you need a course on making friends. Start with a case of beer, or maybe two cases of beer. Find a fabricator (old pipe fitter) who has a welding machine mounted on his truck. And ask him to come help you. Find an old-timer in the local hot rod club and help him with his car in exchange for him helping you. Or, go buy a flux welder at lowes for $100-ish and bribe somebody to come to your house and help you.

Can you shoot a cell phone pic of the nut to me? Like socorob, I don't know what nut you are describing. If you don't know how to post a photo to the site, you can message me the photo to 256-366-4685.

You also need to know who is being paid by whom for saying what they say in a review. Lots of these drivers are sponsored by the tires they review. So they are paid to be complimentary.

If anybody can answer this question, it would be Greg Ira. I doubt if any of us have deep enough pockets (sponsors) to do a really good job answering or discussing this question. Even Grassroots Motorsports and Car and Driver do a lousy job with the subject. You will just get feedback based on the "butt dyno.". The fast guys in my club run a variety of tires. But, the fastest guys run Hoosier A6 in the largest size they can shove on the car. The fastest guy runs tires much wider than the fitment chart would suggest should fit on his rims by width. You would need to test NEW tires as my tires lose a lot of stick even sitting in my shop over the winter. I deal with this by running one set of tires on the street and another at the track. It's expensive, but it is the only way I have been able to un-frustrate myself. I can usually find used A6s for less than new street tires, I just try to avoids race tires that are more than a year old. I will leave you to your madness.

256-882-2450. Lane doesn't talk much so don't take it personally. When he's not talking, I think he's listening.

I had mine reworked by Lane Culver just south of Huntsville. He had a chassis dyno too. I will use him for my cam too because he will do all the labor and a dyno session for tuning afterward as a package deal. He had to rework my harness and ECM after someone else did a bad job deleting accessories and after I set the wiring on fire.

90% of the time, this is the stance of my Z.

With a standard flare you will be limited to about 275s, which is about 10" of tread. You will need the extra-wide flares to go to 315s. Go to the Hoosier site and you will find a pretty good size chart. The 255 is no wider than a 245, only taller. I have run 245s and I want more tire. Going to 275s this year. Perhaps 315s next year. I think that is going to be my limit. For the most part,the grippier the tire, the faster it will wear out. All those tires are good, but unless you have a million bucks burning a hole in your pocket, you sure wont want to lite 'em up very often. I really like to "lite 'em up!" I would pick the cheapest from among them.

What size wheel, and flares or no flares?