blueovalz

Great! Please take lots of pictures, from lots of angles, with lots of text in the diary. We always enjoy a crumb or two from time to time as to the progress of projects done by our members. Good luck

I......I.....oh just forget it!

Sorry to hear it. I've resigned myself to having something similar happen too. Just a matter of time. BTW, beautiful photo of the engine bay and engine. Very clean. Can't say I've seen even one photo of your Z that I didn't oogle over.

Now to investigate the strength and design of the shafts. Thanks.

Never considered it, most likely because the OEM location worked fine for whatever I was doing.

Yeah! (What a card!) I've thought about starting that one back up (keeping it mid-engine though), but I'm enjoying a shiny paint job right now, and actually getting the garage back in order again. Give me a year and who knows what will happen. Take care Ernie.

This may not help, but it sounds as though the new rack pushes the steering shaft assembly toward the firewall somewhat more than the original did (this is based on the Z steering column design, but like I said earlier, I'm just throwing out some info that may help). On my Z, the shaft is splined so that it slides in and out of the steering column, thus movement fore and aft is possible for the rod and u-joint (for the collapsible column). If the ZX is of the same design, then I posit that the ZX used two different steering shafts and that the rack-associated shaft was a tad bit shorter between the rack and the U-joint then the R/B shaft was. EDIT, I now notice you replaced the steering shaft as well...sorry. Would replacing the rubber damper between the inner and outer shafts with a thinner material pull the U-joint forward enough to keep it from rubbing?

Big thanks for sharing these.

Are we talking about bolt pattern here, or the offset of the wheels?

Well done. Boy, I'd like to have started with a unibody as nice as yours is. Keep the photos coming.

My rear flares are 4.5" wider than the OEM sheetmetal was, and the fronts are 4" wider. When I had racing tires and wheels, I used a 12.5 on a 12" in back, and a 10.5 on a 10" in front. I could have gone a bit smaller (up to 3" wider instead of 4") up front and it would have been just fine. All this was based on a backspacing of 5" with the use of coil-overs. Thinking out loud here; I had 8" wheels (with 245s) under the OEM sheetmetal on my 280 w/o coil-overs, so add another 4", and a 12" wheel should fit if you're carefull. An 11" for sure. Note: I've not ever owned a ZX, but I believe the wheel wells are deeper on them, so you'll need to make your own measurements and determine what you need.

Here is an interesting 300ZX http://www.cardomain.com/id/oey117

Welcome aboard. We hope to exceed your expectations.

Of the 4 years I’ve been a member of this site, this string is the one I can say gives me the red-ass worse than any other I’ve ever read. It’s gravitated from making light of Democrats, to a debate on something seriously near and dear to me. We’ve got a nation (a forum) glaringly divided over a situation that our country is embroiled in. I’m a firm believer that if a nation is so polarized over a specific situation it’s in, then it shouldn’t be in that situation to begin with. The “SHEEOPLE†(as defined earlier) that I saw 3 years ago (after the attack in NY) were the “flag on every car and on every home†sector, saying that “because we got our nose bloodied, we will stand together, regardless of the direction we are told to stand.†Basically, we were united, which gave us tremendous potential. But instead of taking that costly (very costly) potential, and directing it with unquestionable direction, we (someone) are squandering it in another country, a country that should have instead been placed at the top of a list of “grass fires to be pissed on.†If someone robs me and beats my wife in the process, I will not go and beat up on the first guy that looks cross-eyed at me. Instead, I’m going to go devastate the SOB that hurt my wife. One very important test of whether a country should be involved in a situation (conflict, etc) is whether the country is united in that endeavor. Once united, we wouldn’t blink at ten thousand casualties lost over a “just causeâ€, but divided, we suffer for just a thousand. If the thousand lost, were lost hunting down the guy who attacked us, then let me be part of the next thousand, but don’t put me with the next 100 that are distracting me from hunting the one who attacked us. Politics and Religion, liberal and conservative, I’m right, and everybody else is wrong (I’m sitting here shaking my head, and wondering…). Neither side sees the wrong that “their†side does, but never overlooks the wrong done by the other side. I avoided this string for as long as I could, and I hope I can avoid looking at this string ever again. And to make matters worst, it took me 20 minutes to log in (Error message FW-1 at Frodo) just to post this reply (perhaps it’s not meant to be).

Click on the "attachment" link.

It looks ready to huff and puff.

Z-tard: Great looking cap, and car. The wider photo shows the cap orientation very well. Good job.

I can remember an old 240Z that looked at least that rough when the bodywork was started on it. Before: After: Go get 'em!

Looks really good!

I (at least I thought I did) read AW from cover to cover and I never saw that one. Hmmmm, note to one's self, "quit drinking those dang Metropolitans while reading AW" )

Looks like a very effective wing. This car is facing into a 30 knot headwind and it actually has made the rear squat. I think it's also powered by a flux capacitor or some other beta emitter as well (radioactive emblem in the center of the grill). But the vented hood is worth a look. Very interesting.

Thanks so much for the photo downsize. Now I can see the whole thing without scrolling. So, are the long-shank bolts holding the sway bar onto the upright bracket (which are loose) this way when you examined this for the the first time? With only a single bushing sandwiched between the arm, and the bar, makes me wonder why the bar does not hit the control arm rear edge whenever the suspension compresses. Quite a mess.

I agree. Had the 350Z looked like this (not my car, but your photo), THEN I would consider it for myself, but I have yet to look at a new 350Z without wondering "what were they thinking". Great looking car. Any more photos?

The tires are 315/35zr17s on an 11" wheel. Floral foam is what I used. There are two kinds, one reacting to the resin, and the other that does not. Send me an e-mail (not a PM) so I can send you a Word document describing the process if you're interested.

It appears to be too clean a separation between front and back to say that this chassis did not have a manufacturing defect or design. It almost looks like it was designed to break just a that location, which obviously is shouldn't.