blueovalz

Toooo funny! And the flourescent lights are bug magnets too. I ended up turning the lights off before opening the door. After that, I didn't have any more bug problems. At least mine were the size of gnats. Great story. Squirrelgripper: (Squirrelgripper ) Just prior to retiring the car to the garage for several years, I did attempt some auto-X, but EMod weight restriction made it a tough group to race against, and this was back when the AFB was still letting us race on the old B-52 "christmas tree" in Jacksonville (lots of high speed courses)

Guessing from the photos (VERY LARGE PHOTOS, 10 minutes on dial-up photos) I'd say you've got about an inch and a half between the bar and the narrow part of the shafts. If this is so, you got some room to play with. The bar's arms will follow the up and down movements of the shafts to a certain extent, so go ahead and close that gap up with a link. I don't mind saying that whoever did that job, did a hatchet job on this set-up. I'll bet the brackets clamped around the upright move, or slide, on the upright judging on how it is mounted around it (per the rust markings on the upright above the bracket. If possible, see if you can shrink the photos down a bit to aid us "dial-up vagrants" some speed.

Thanks for all the painting tips (and your time on the phone) Ernie. The stripe transitions went very well as you instructed, and yes (per your thoughts) I did paint the car in pieces. It all matches perfectly, and even I was surprised at how nicely it went. There were a few minor problems (e.g. bugs doing a square-dance in the wet paint) such as the gum staying on the white stripe part when I pulled the tape off. I tried all sorts of things to remove this gum, and then found the easiest and safest way to remove the gum (BTW, this was 3M tape, and it was not to my expectations; blue, green, masking, rubber, or what-ever, none of it was typical 3M quality) was lay a fresh strip of masking tape down over the stuck gum, and then pull the tape back off, pulling the stuck gum with it. Thankfully the base coat was tape safe within a very short time, which saved me a lot of problems as well. Anyway, thanks again for all the advice. You are the paint KING!

If you've got a stock ride height, with stock swaybar location (280z, front mount type) then I'd say 3-4 inches on the link (I prefer, at it's set ride height, to have the arms perfectly horizontal). So if the car has been lowered, or other things have been changed (gone to a rear-mounted bar, or using ZXT shafts, etc) I'd suggest shorter links.

Boy, I had to grimace on that one. There absolutely should be a link of some sorts between the control arm and the end of the sway bar. This sounds almost too absurd to believe. A link of various lengths can be bought at almost any speed shop. If worst comes to worst, go to the salvage yard and find a link similar to you front one and use them. But the very first thing I'd do is see if there is some obvious reason why this was done like this, and then see if any permanent damage has been done to the control arm.

Cheap is good. Now ya got me thinking about doing the same. My pickup is 2/3rds forward and on the passenger side. This would let me get home on these dang up-hills on low fuel levels.

You've got to remove the upper part of the strut from its mounting, remove the upper spring perch (use a spring compressor, or thread the lower spring perch down the threaded tube until tension is removed from the spring), remove the gland nut that holds the strut insert into the casing, and then you will have a clear shot at slipping off the threaded tube, slipping on a spacer cylinder (spacer) onto the welded perch, and then slipping the threaded tube back onto this spacer.

Boy, you guys don't miss a thing. The spoiler is getting painted this weekend. Yes it looks good without it as well, so I'm going to go ahead and place it on the car and see what I (and you guys) think. I've had a hard time deciding on this issue. BTW Dan, appreciate the way you "play" the photos of your fabulous Z

This body was a "divorce recovery" project I threw myself into one summer. Then the project took on a life of its own after that. At the time I started it I felt, "who the **** cares what I do, or how I do it" and thus I did little to document the process. But as some folks took notice, I learned that there would be others that could learn from my mistakes (and successes) and I started photo-documenting as much of the work as was possible. Anyway, to answer you question, I glued a bunch of foam onto the car, sanded it to the shape I liked, laid it up in glass, removed the foam, and finished it out. It's a never ending project.

Steel wool works well too, but do not use a scotchbrite pad as I believe it will actuallly scratch the glass.

We love cameras (the digi type anyway)! Looks like a good start to your project.

I very successfully used 200lb/in springs that were 10" long. I'd do what jt1 suggested and weld a new collar in place (or slip a longer cylindrical type of collar onto the current one to raise the spring perch up higher if you don't want to weld at this time). At 200lb/in, the springs should compress roughly 2.5" depending on the weight of the car. Mine would compress about 2.1", but that was a gutted '71.

You can! I started out knowing nothing about any of this stuff. My first car was a '72 Pinto, and I did a really lousy job with the touch-up paint. Put a Holley 390 on it and then wrecked it. Inspiration and persperation are 90% of the end result. You say, "I want to do.....", and then you do it. Never give up. Never give up!

I see some truth to the original posting, but not through it all. Each generation has it's "moments" that give it the markers separating it from any other generation, and in that light, each generation goes through the same cycle. Stupid youthful emotion overides logic, turns into the aged where logic conflicts with sentimental memories of the youthful emotiion. I always feel a sort of sadness in my feelings that my boy will not have the same stage I had when I was growing up, but I must believe that my parents thought the same way when they saw me taken away by the yellow bus every morning.

Yeah Tim, I did consider this, but as I got further into the scheme, I felt it was better to break the line up by the panel. I was concerned that the line going through the panel (and the vent frame), though it's competition look would have been undeniable, would have given the car too much of a "toy" appearance, and I was looking to keep that characteristic toned down just a tiny bit (does that make any sense?)

I'm hoping I can show the back side of the car when needed (even with a little ol' 289) every now and then. Tonight I finally assembled all the rear end stuff. I clear-coated the aluminum rings around the exhaust outlets (which are SS), took a silver Sharpee (used to write on dark materials) and high-lighted the vanes on the rear vent because the flat black just didn't show there was anything inside the framework, and installed the rear pan. The vertical stripe sure makes the car look taller than it did in the monotone primer color (from the rear point of view) BTW, I truely appreciate all the very nice comments on the car. I hope this will drive some of you guys, on the verge of creating their own work of art, over the edge, to "just do it". Anyway enjoy the photos, and again thanks for the advice given during the past years on the directions I took leading up to this moment. Now to enjoy a couple of shows.

I believe this is normal. My Z did it, and my SX does it. I think this is due to the large vacuum leak exposed with the cap taken off. The air drawn into the manifold from the valve cover (through the large hose between the valve cover and the intake manifold) bypasses the AFM, thus it is not metered. Anybody else??

It's all done with mirrors. Actually I just move it around until it's in the frame of all my pictures 'cause I love my Lawnboy.

Parts are going on the car again. The GM Indigo blue appears a bit dark, but in the sun it lightens up really well. Now I feel like one of the regular guys again.

Sounds good!

Airbag? You boys act civil now. Good story. Years back we had the "old man" in town that owned the early Nova with a 327 (and indeed, they are light) that was pretty quick as well. Good story.

PRIMER!! Did someone say primer! (I love primer......well, I used to anyway). Tim's probably closer on time. I thought I'd wet sand my primered monstrosity in 2 afternoons. Yeah, right. It took 5 days.

Actually, if memory serves me correctly, I cut the core support out, along with about 6" of the front of the frame rails. Then I tied the remainder of the frame rails back together with 1 X 3 steel tubing. Then I welded in a 1" and 3/4" tubing framework for the radiator. The bottom of this frame was moved aft of the OEM location by about 4", and the top was moved forward by about 7". Basically, the CG of the radiator was moved forward by about 1.5".

It is generally accepted that the R200 is stronger than the R180. Generally, bigger is stronger.

This issue was one of the things that I wrestled over as I was making the front clip. The OEM Z design does, to a minimal degree, raise the fenders up slightly higher than the hood, which is one of the many characteristics of the Z I love. To do this and widen the fender for wider tires, I had to flatten this curve (profile of the fender's top) out so that it would not end up too high where it breaks over the tire's sidewall.