blueovalz

Quite a puzzle you have there. The springs would then compress about 2" or maybe a bit more (unsprung weight is guessed at about 300lbs with wheels, so sprung weight on each wheel shouldn't be much more than 530 or so pounds). I'm guessing the car is very close to equilibrium if the fender wheel openings were not there interfering with the compliance, but even with the future bodywork considered, I think it should be higher than this, even on a lowered vehicle. A piece of schedule 40 pipe (say 1.5" long) cut in half, lengthwise, placed around the strut tube below the threaded tube, and then held in place with a couple of hose clamps could at least get the bodywork off the tires by raising the threaded tube up to the gland nut as a temporary fix to find out where you're at on this. You will for sure want to go with 10" springs, and may want to consider 12" springs if there is a lot of weight on the tires at the point you're currently at. EDIT, You've already replied prior to reading this post.

John!

At full droop (from your photo I assume with the jack under the diff), it appears the spring is just barely compressed (which is not a bad thing being mine completely unload at full droop). The threaded tube appears to be correctly located. First question is what is the spring rate on these springs? 2) the placement of coil-overs (I believe) eliminates the upper rubber isolator, which on the 280 is about 3"???). So was this taken into consideration when determining the placement of the threaded tube. 10" springs instead of the 8" could be one answer to your problem. Quick fix to get the car somewhere is to shim up the spring off the perch, which could be done, but would require some quick fabrication. It sounds as though you will need to depend on someone else to do this?

A site that produces "cultured" gearheads. Now if we could all speak the Queens English, I for one, would be enthralled Happy Birthday!

No reason to Freak out. Pics of the strut without the wheels on it may help. Was the collar that supports the threaded tube positioned too low? If this is true, the fix is a simple addition of a new ring higher up the strut tube.

Love those pics!!! The IMSA flares were the inspiration for the blueovalz.

Now my day is complete

Try this company: http://www.auto-jet.com I've had good dealings with them and the price appears to be reasonable.

All right, I have to ask...... funny

Well, that's a first for me. Necessity is the mother of invention I guess. I'll bet the clamp will loosen with time though, but still an interesting read.

One alternative you can check out is the "Bullitt" Mustang fuel door. It is not a cap, but is a door that covers the cap. I've used one on my car, and it has a very slight one dimensional curve to it (almost looks flat). Here are some ebay links to several different ideas under the search of "fuel door": http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50452&item=2440169174 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42611&item=2440169357 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33655&item=2440188734 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33642&item=2440648471

I can't imagine you will even notice the two 90's as far as performance is concerned.

Check this string for a photo and explaination: http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24483&highlight= In short, the long axle goes with the long input shaft if using an OEM differential. The longer shaft is the passenger side shaft. But I'd wait until the suspension is up and a positive check can be made before returning them. My Gleason Torsen LSD had to have these shafts/stubs swapped before they would fit.

FYI for future reference or searches: Some of the members here have been or are involved in bodywork that may require the use of a "different" hood hinge. An example of this was a member doing the 250GTO kit. The OEM Z hinge allows the hood to rotate up and forward, but still drops the very front leading edge of the hood downward. The 280ZX hinge does the same by allowing the front of the hood to dip down behind the front bumper area. In some cases this may not be acceptable. The G-nose hinge (I believe) does the same thing while some JY hinges allow the ENTIRE hood to be raised upward and forward, thus clearing any bodywork forward of the hood. Many of the JY hinges that may work well are instead trunk lid hinges for many sedans. Here is a picture, gratefully supplied by member Chris Thorne, of a G-nose hood hinge. This is compared to another simple, but different JY hinge (that allows complete bodywork clearance issues as mentioned above). A JY hinge that is even more "pronounced" (larger curve and span) is the Taurus trunk hinge. Unfortunately it will require more "swing room" if used. G-nose hinge: JY hinge examples:

I believe the OEM headlights are 55 watt on high beam, which, if divided by 12 (volts) give the amps drawn per lamp, which is not much. If you upgrade to a higher wattage lamp, simply do the same thing again for each lamp's amp draw and then multiply times two for the "set".

Tim, the ride is looking good! Any more pics?

depending on the situation, if the sealant is along the entire back edge, a flexible wire saw (similar to piano wire) can be pulled from front to back cutting the sealant as you pull it backward with the ends of the wire above and below the panel to be removed.

Flip side: I took my car out early Sunday morning (0700) after working on the suspension the night before. Coming off the cloverleaf one of the springs set into the perch, so when I got on the straight part of the highway (no traffic within 200 yards except for a state trooper WAY back, I did the wobble thing in my lane (at least thats what I thought) to make sure all the springs were "set". I was promptly pulled over and issued an unsafe driving sitation because I crossed the lane boundries repeatedly. Technically, yeah, he was right, but the spirit of the law was raped in this case. No traffic within a reasonable buffer and at a safe speed. I guess we all have stories of "indiscriminate" use of the law by those enforcing them. Anyway, I catch myself remembering this situation (and a couple others like it) more than the many, many times that I've been cut a lot of slack (when I indeed was in the wrong) by these folks. Trying to keep a proper perspective on these things.

There is really not much to say in regards to details. The picture above of the hinge on the chassis is simply a bracket welded in place so that the hinge can swing upward as close as possible to the edge of the front clip where the leading edge of the hood line is. The further forward you move the pivot point, the greater effect of the hood moving upward instead of forward when it is opened initially. The purpose of this is to keep the front edge of the hood from rotating forward and binding before clearing the front clip (which may be only an 1/8" or so). Otherwise, a larger gap than is desirable will be needed to prevent the binding. Here is a photo of the visible part of the hinge in the most upright position with the hood attached. Notice that I place the hinge pivot point (and thus the hinge) as far forward as possible so that it was at the very minimum, further forward than the pointed leading edge of the hood. Unfortunately, the front point of the hood is also elevated an 1" or so, so this subtracts from some of the advantage gained in a forward hood hinge, so the hinge needs to be well forward (a larger, longer hinge, such as Taurus trunk hinge would have worked better, but they are rather large). Also moving the hinge inboard on a pointy front end also moves the hinge forward as well. Lastly, here is a photo of the top of the front end. The black horizontal line represents the centerline pivot point of the hood hinges joining the two together. Even at 1.5" forward of the hood center point, the hood only clears by 1/2" (at full open) due to the rise in the center of the hood (it's not flat) and the fact that the pivot point gets lower as it is moved further forward (due to the downward curving of the front end body.

The differential stubs and the halfshaft are combined (to become one part here) on the CV shafts, whereas on the U-jointed shafts they are separate (2 parts).

Look at it this way. The differential turns the axles through the stub flange (which is inserted into the diff), which is bolted onto the entire U-jointed halfshaft, which in turn is bolted onto a Companion flange which is bolted (with one large center nut on the end of the splined stub) onto the Axle Stub which turns or is bolted onto the wheel. The only difference between this and the CV jointed halfshafts is that the CV jointed halfshafts, and the differential stub are all built as one assembled part instead of two separate parts as with the U-jointed shafts. The CV joint adapter you speak of simply replaces the OEM Companion flange (from a ZX) with a modified Companion flange from a Z (in simple terms while leaving out the details). This allows the use of the CV jointed shafts to be attached to the slightly larger 280Z stubs. The normal CV joint Companion flange will only bolt onto (actually it will only match the splines) a 240z stub axle. There are advantages to this adapter, but I'll not go into that here.

My bet is on the Predator. He's a "distance" fighter and the Alien needed to be close-in to be effective. Obviously this will not be true in the movie though. The Predator's IR vision will fail to pick up the Alien, and the Alien will be able to close the gap on the Predator too quickly, and bla bla bla blaaaa bla (it's time for bed)

You were very close. My 302 weighed 389lbs when I installed it into my Z. This was with an aluminum flywheel, aluminum heads, a very lightweight aluminum intake (the OLD Torker intake, which is a very good intake), headers, and a cheap but very light water pump (which promptly grenaded shortly after). I've changed to a heavier intake, and a heavier water pump. I've also added a power steering pump and belts, so the engine weight has gone over the 400lb mark, but not by much. With the same equipment, my L6 came in at 427lbs.

You guys probably didn't notice this but my blueovalz never had any hood hinges on it. Due to the body design (and the fact that it was a race only car) I never used hinges on it and simply removed the hood (via Dzeus fasteners) when needed. Being the car is a street/show priority now, I went ahead and put some hinges on it. I had to use some VW sedan hood hinges (design and weight were priorities here) due to the Z front end design that required even the very front tip of the hood to come up as the whole hood was swinging forward. I'm assuming the G-nose hinges are similar (any pics of a G-nose hinge out there ). Hinge detail below. The 1/2" steel tube bracing (running up and down above the hinge in this photo) runs even with the front edge of the hood at that point, but the front tip of the hood is about 3" longer (further forward), which created the biggest problem in making sure it clears as the hood opens. Fortunately, I've got about 1/2" between the hood and the front clip with the hood all the way up.

Doors (both w/hinges and glass) weighed 91 lbs when I replaced my '72 door with the skins I made from fiberglass. The hatch weighs (w/hinges again) 41 lbs. I have the door panels at 11 lbs, but I cannot remember if I weighed them with or without the doors (I'm guessing they were not included in the door weight being I had a separate weight for them.