RebekahsZ

Just arrived in SF. Our Vrbo is SUPER nice. Street is kinda noisy in the living room but the bedrooms are in back. #citylife. The air out here is magical! Heading out for supper.

All that sounds great. I will look those up. I REALLY appreciate it! Just arrived at our place in SF-super nice for the price. Getting ready to head out for dinner. Our tummies are on Central time zone.

If you could make a set from something more durable than hand-laid fiberglass, it would be a unique product that would benefit the universe. I'm not sure what the copyright laws dictate, but it would be a good thing for the community, but like described above, Id hate to see an artist get screwed. I remember when all the pop-out surfboards started coming out of Asia.... As nations go, it's a double-edge sword, but it is somehow different when you know the guy you'd be burning in the process. Maybe he would license the use of his flares as a template? Not if he's smart... But if you made them just enough different to qualify as somehow unique...

Regular body primer isn't water proof and if not top-coated, will rust, just a little slower than if not primered. Are you suggesting that the weld thru primer doesn't get painted, but you just leave it at that? I ask only to learn.

Anybody know where cars & coffee is on Jun18 or 19? It's not at the Petersen until June 26-my bad.

Schedule is June 13 Big Sur-SLO-Pismo June 14 Landspeed Hall of Fame at Buellton-famous surf spots-supper at Santa Monica-check in at Airbnb in Hollywood area June 15 Hollywood Bus Tour June 16 The Broad Art Museum-Concert at Troubadour June 17 Petersen Museum-Labrea Tar Pits-Cruise in at Bobs Big Boy in Burbank ( if they have it) June 18 Cars and Coffee (if they have it)-beaches from Santa Monica to Huntington, visit Benton Motorsport (they may be closed). June 19 free morning-fly out of LAX at 4:25. I need supper recommendations in SLO and LA. (?)

Seems a shame to ever put the hood on.

We kinda don't need rear sway are on these cars anyway. If you build the car with any real power, you will need all the rear traction you can get, and a sway bar steals traction from the inside wheel. Eliminate body roll with heavier spring rate and you won't miss a rear bar one bit. Plus, if you go to CV rear axles, it is hard to get the sway bar links to not rub the CVs. It gets cramped back there really quick. I just bought a Z that has bent up front frame rails. Your fab is sick! How will you coat the inside of the front frame rails to prevent surface rust (or will you just have to accept some rust)? These blind panels like our rocker panels seem to re-rust and bubble paint a few years after welded repairs. I'm really discouraged and am contemplating junking this rust-free body I just got that has bent to fuc.. front rails instead of trying to repair it. I'm pretty discouraged. Any words of hope?

3 questions: 1) Is this a helical LSD? 2) Do we use the same shim stack as a standard R200 to locate the ring gear/carrier combination within the case (and to establish the proper relationship to the pinion gear)? 3) Do you have a source for shims?

My parents met thru sailing.

Tank is out. Using the lift and a fuel tank adapter on a transmission Jack, it was the easiest time I've ever removed the tank. Only spilled about a cup of gas in my eye. Which is better than usual. Missed my new shoes. One step closer to getting the chute installed.

I've never put a scanner on my Z. I don't have an idiot light. So long as temp and pressure are good, I'm putting the pedal down! My damn truck throws codes all the time. It has an idiot light-what a pain in the arse.

Oh, yeah, that pick up o-ring is a must-do! That's been a problem for lots of folks. Consider staying stock cam. With a stick cam, you will burn clean. With a hot cam you will stink and sputter and buck at low rpm. It will be fast enough stock.

What drag racing wheels & tires do you have planned?

Here's mine. Fiberglass over foam sheeting from Lowe's.

Sep 30-Oct 2. Not yet registered, but I plan to go.

Car ran 174 last year with bit of a tailwind. That is limited by power and gearing. I will need substantial changes to car to go faster. This year I want to go safer.

The wing itself is very rigid and well made, except that it is too close on the drivers fender. But mounting composites is always an issue. The rivet nuts insert into very thin carbon fiber (and) the deck itself is very flimsy in this area. And the doubler panel makes it hard to install hardware from the backside. I guess if it was easy, all the kids would be doing it. MiKelly installed the same or similar wing on his car with just the two bolts and silicone adhesive. Mine doesn't match the contour well enough to use adhesive, plus, I wanna be able to try different spoilers easily. 1 tuff z, I think this spoiler is similar to yours. With varying wind speed and direction it will be hard to provide perfect feedback, but I will do my best.

Working on high speed stability as I prepare for the Ohio Mile. Drilled the rear hatch to be able to make a pass with no rear spoiler, then to quickly mount a small BRE-style spoiler for a pass, then to go on up to a larger rear spoiler. The BRE spoiler has 6 studs already bonded into it. The Larger spoiler came with 2 rivet nuts in it from the supplier. I drilled it and epoxied (10) 1/4" aluminum rivet nuts into it. This is the first mod I've made to try to get the car to go straight better. Next is to drop the fuel tank and to get it to my chassis guy to have the chute mount built. Pics to follow.

I hate to see those beautiful fenders go the way of the saw, but it's time to get cutting! That first cut is like circumcision. It hurts!!!!! But it opens up possibilities. Cut high so you can put the pedal down without worrying about hellaflush tire cuts.

Congrats!!! Big day! Your car is so nice and clean-makes mine look like corn beef hash.

Ok. Pull the pan and see how she looks inside. If you are gonna do a bunch of track days install an Improved Racing set of oil pan baffles and a crank scraper. Check the plugs for gap and electrode wear. Cut apart the oil filter and check for chunks as big as grains of sand-that's bad and you need to tear down. If you wipe your fingers across the filter paper and you get kind of a waxy dull gray residue on your fingers, that's normal wear. If she looks ok at that point, I'd probably pop her in and hope for the best. If the motor has oil clinging to the crank, don't worry about first crank up but maybe disconnect the coils or fuel pump and crank some oil thru it a bit with the starter before first fire up and don't immediately blip the throttle or rev her up till you know you have good oil pressure 50-60 cold and 40 hot). If you don't see good oil clinging to parts when you inspect, consult with somebody about a good oil to crank a dry engine with for the first time. Install a new clutch slave cylinder and make sure the stack up on any replacement clutch parts are the same as stock. Install a 4-foot remote clutch slave cylinder bleeder hose. If you see any obvious leaks, like valve cover gaskets or the round rubber gaskets around the valve cover bolts, replace those. If the motor looks good, I wouldn't put a new pump in it-some replacement pumps are bad from the supplier. You can't match the quality of a factory built engine if you are a hobby-level wrench like I am. If things check out ok on a quick inspection, I'd leave well enough alone and get it fired up and on the road.

Opposite end of the spectrum: verbal contract and money down with a guy to put LQ4 of unknown origins into my truck. Engine had unknown mileage and useage, obtained for free in trade. Oily and greasy. Swapper supposedly tore engine down and replaced can and crank bearings and installed new oil pump. Engine lost oil pressure on Dyno tuning and was shut down and torn down. All bearings bad again. Swapper replaced bearings and oil pump again, blaming failure on bad oil pump. Tuned car and gave it back to me. Within 1000 miles and towing the Z out of state from a race, oil pressure falling, temperature rising, lifters clattering. Limped that tired shit on home and took directly back to his shop. Bad bearings again. FINALLY took motor to get crank and block checked for alignment: got block align honed and crank journals turned, new bearings, new oil pump and I've enjoyed the truck with good engine reliability for over a year now. Uses oil, but I think that is from the PCV system. Had a clutch hydraulics failure later because swapper used a clutch hydraulic line that mush have been underfoot in his shop for a few years and it blew out randomly in the middle of the line, far away from any heat sources or chafing risks.

How many miles on the motor? Do you know the history of the donor vehicle? Any obvious damage or leaks? My engine/trans had 18k miles on it and you could eat off of it. The car had spun off the road backwards and destroyed the rear subframe. When I removed my oil pan to swap from GTO to Camaro pan, the oil still clinging to the rods looked like fresh clear honey. I put that sucker in the car with the same plugs in it (never even pulled one to check it); haven't done anything but change the oil once a year since 2012. I started with the same clutch only separated the engine and trans long enough to install the clutch hydraulics adapter fitting, then slapped her back together. I have since replaced the clutch but it was driver launch technique that wrecked it. If I had been a smarter driver, I'd probably still have the stock clutch in it.

Rats!