Vintage-TechZ

240Z2NV, ..Go ahead and use your plan,its a good one ,I use the Pnuematic Flanger all the time in mock-up ! Since you plan to LAY the duct in, First turn your hood up,so you can lay the duct (top of duct ) against the inner hood and do as you thought,move it to the sweet spot. I will warn you ; once you cut the HOLE in the hood ,there is a lot of TENSION that goes awry and the flange tool will be fighting this ! So do plan on some good Floating body work afterwards to make it look right ! Good luck,your gonna' love it . ...........Vince

VERY funny ! Whats really a bummer is that it's not even a RAT engine (big block to the uninformed ) The power of cheese ! HA...Vince

ON3GO, Since your wanting to view the Carbon Fiber weave,it would be the best end result to have the duct jamb or surround monting frame to be moulded as a seperate part and THEN bonded to the backside of your hood. But REMEMBER , the point in the hood that you decide to cut the hole needs to match the curve in the DUCT or as close as possible so you don't end up with some unattractive waviness. Once you have made the mounting frame you can test fit the backside of the hood before you cut the hole and find a good resting spot for the Duct.And YES,continue to use masking tape to mark your areas and be able to make marks for cutting.( I use a cut-off wheel on a DIE grinder,slowly sink or plunge into the Carbon. You'll actually put the Epoxy resin on the DUCT frame and put against the hole with the Hood upside down (sawhorses etc.) Lay plastic sheet strips on the WET resin and place slightly heavy items along the curing resin. When your ready to see how it fits and looks,flip the hood over and see how well you did on picking the location ! .......................Vince

Sparky ! Yeah...your hood was cool..I remember seeing it at the San Antonio Nat'ls. But e-mail me a pix so I'll know how close my mold is to it,and I'll let you know what can be done ! ....................Vinny-Z

In that case Cool ! Ive even got one that incorparates the early 80's Trans-Am fender side vents grafted onto a early Z hood,very tough looking ! But on your" Wants" for a turbo nissan duct, I was on that 8 months ago,thats one good reason I'm so familliar with the Arch concern. And yes it does look COOL ! 8) Bare with me and I'll work up some photo's as soon as I can. I have to travel to Sacramento and Stockton on the 23rd and then to N,Carolina. Let me know guys if there's any additional interest ! ...........................Vince

Well perhaps I should have started by saying;Like all things,there's a steep learning curve,and a lot of on the spot creativity working in this kinda' fab. But,these "Labor of Love " kinda' projects are what make all of our cars unique and easy to APPRECIATE ! (as the youth of our nation say;WORD !) I know,I know...don't you hate it when older guys attemt slang ! 8) If you can be patient for just a bit longer,I've got several hood designs in the works and the main molds are done !I just havn't had time to photograph and catalogue them yet !I've inventoried 50 yards of C/F and 200 yards of glass,and about a thousand dollars in Epoxy resins to prepare for a lot of hand lay-up. My intension was not to JACK this thread on sales of my hoods ! So if you still want to cut we can proceed ! ..............Vince

Retro fitting the part is very possibly going to leave you with a certain amount of Tension around the area cut out (your warned ) But if you must,proceed by locating the Field or Area that best suits the Arch of the duct,mark with strips of 3/4 " mask tape So you can write on tape your cut line. Remember; your going to need to Make a jamb recess first that the duct will later rest in,and make the part removable and look professional while adding rigidity as well.the jamb will be molded directly off the backside of your duct.a beginners way,is to take thin plastic sheeting( Bag like thickness)and lay over the backside of the part,then mix your batch of glass in strips around the edges of where the mounting points would be,you can use a right angle hand grinder later with a 50 grit disc to clean up the edges later.essentially the area your creating will resemble an "L" or a small shelf for the parent part. Are you still with me ? ................Vince

ON3GO,..the first hurdle re;grafting in that Nissan NACA style duct is that it is molded in a very ridgid carbon plastic material and will want to dominate the space it takes up next to a larger plane. What I mean is before you cut ,besure to locate the natural exsisting curve of the form so the hood material won't have lots of give ,flex or wave. I'm assuming that your clearcoating the C/F as to enjoy the weave 3D appearance ? 8) If your going to color the hood ,youll still want to find the sweet spot to locate so you don't use too much heavy filler tring to make the mod fit ! Thats why I usually make independant molds of each componant AFTER a parent desighn study is finished and dedicated for the look your after,not later on completed part. .........I've done alot of this type of FAB so ask away ! ..............Vince

Hey Aux.,...did you go for the xtra 75 hp and "street port" your 13B ?I've got my 88 13B ragtpop motor on the bench getting ported and new Apex seals..but it's not a T-motor. My boss will Love to see you doing this swap since he only builds blown rotary's. Good luck,I know he gets upwards of 400 rwhp and there are some great looking stainless steel turbo headers on e-bay on rotation bid that he's bought as low as 85 bucks ! You should check it out,it will allow you to use one good turbo instead of the self canibalizing factory twins. later.............Vince

My daily driver is a 91' Syclone AWD turbo,and I think you can find one(Engine-tranny) occasionally on the many links like Sy/Ty etc. You know it will fit and I can attest that you'll probably want to keep that Linginfelter tuned auto tranny cause' it hits so Hard in second, Nothing touches you at the launch. Of course thats with the AWD. I love the AWD so much thats why I'm doing the early Z body .widened with the RB26DETT AWD.I just feel it will be well worth the xtra work....but thats another thread . .........Vince

Wow,....great lively flic ! You can really tell the Japanese are truly passionate about the Z's in that effort !Thanks for the post ,it's probably the best one I've seen here yet.What a killer photographer too ! ..............Vince

I was about to turn 16 and all my buddies parents were buying them muscle cars to drive !Of course my dad said forget a muscle car and by the way,how much have you saved for the car of your choice,6 months insurance and money for a set of tires ?I mowed lawns as a summer gig and had saved about 3600.00 bucks ! I was driving down the HWY one day and about crapped when I saw a RED 70' 240 on the back of a flatbed heading the opposite direction.I'd been looking for this car,but no one could remember who had it.The story was,some farmers son got stuck overseas in the military and it hadn't moved in years. Of course I SCREAMED at my friend to SPIN AROUND and follow that truck !We caught up to the man as he walked out of the TOYOTA dealership where he was just dropping the car off from a previous Trade-in on a new Toy. truck. The salesman saw my enthusiasum ( even though I tryed to look anything but ) and made me pay what the window sticker in the glove box read ,because it was already a classic in his book ! DARN ! Oh well ,it was in absolute perfect shape(even being 9 years old ) I still have it....with several other early Z's,all in different themes and restore levels. Rock on Z lovers of all sorts ! ..........Vince

Bastaad, Regarding your fuel vapor in left hand turns,..have you had your fuel tank off and replaced the old hoses yet ? Well if you hav'nt do it soon before you get bad sick ,nerve damage or start talking in tongues ! The hoses on the top of the tank are most assured to shrink and crack and as you crank around a corner the splash and vapor will fallow the path of least...well you know ! Anyway, hope you find it.Nothing ruins a ride faster than that discomforting pungent smell (unles it's racing fuel ! ) ...........Vince

EvilR, I believe those are Flofit seats,custom covered.If the picture showed the headrest I could tell you for certain,I'm judging this call by the bolsters and lumbar view,if they were Recaro's,the headrest would be an obvious design. That is a sharp interior theme ! .................Vince

Bill,If you want the absolute best shine on the tail lens or front signal for that matter, start by removing the assembly carefully,it helps if the unit is very warm to pull it apart. Then start sanding the outside face with a DA or by hand using 240# then 320# and so forth till you are at 1500 #.It goes faster then it sounds.If done by hand ,use a firm hand block. The way I've done it for 25 years is to sand the raised letters completely down and then use automotive paint compound or better yet,3M's Finese-it polish.You should have that on the shelf already if your paint looks worth a darn. Anyway, polish to perfection,I use a Buffer set at low RPM, the buffer on auto-lock between my knee's upside down,and hold the lens in my hands,having already applied the polish on the lens before lowering to buff pad .You'll get the hang of it ! If your careful and pay attension ,they'll better than new ...Guaranteed ! Let me know what ya' think,and good luck .........Vince

Anubis, that is the molded black eurothane spoiler that MSA sells.That car has aluminum covers where the signals go (but you knew that) he simply hasn't painted it yet,or plan to (you knew that too) I will tell you though, if your a perfectionist,you'll want to put a center brace behind it as that dam has a tendancy to sag,then drag..so sad. Anyway...you asked. Vince

Hey Dan,....I realize your choking on congrats., but I met you at the Rio-Vista show when you had done a rough graft-in of the lights ,flares and I loved the direction you were headed. So I knew you would pull it off with great results,but Geez what RESULTS ! Man now thats a tight theme ! Beautiful ! And a great color to boot ! You and T.Oxindale rule the Max-Bod-Mod class !( I really didn't mean for those abbreviations to sound so odd.) I work in Sacremento on occasion ( I was the guy from Springfield ,Missouri ) And BTW... the Hybrid bunch is by far the coolest, 8) warmest Z crowd I've been exposed too yet ! And I get around to alot of Z events around the country.Thanks for that ,alot.I've been building Z's since 16 ( 41 now) and Z folks are Family! OK,ok I'll shut up. .....................Vince

Hey Mike, I'm right in the middle of welding one up as we speak, I'm using 4x4 and 5x5 tube as the primaries,however I do realize this is hell for stout re: a Z's weight. I'm just using materials that are taking up space in the shop. I can't seem to post pics. ,maybe I can e-mail them to you and you could post them for this thread ?Let me know. The mounting points are obvious of course,the main concern is to draw the Grade 8 bolts tight and check them every now and then as you spin the car. I'm going to weld the spin pipe last so as to align the centers with a long 2' or 3' pipe between the full length ,that way the final trueness won't put any undue stresses on the Rotation bearing and bumper points. Give me shout to what ya' think ? ...........Vince

Yeah Sparky, thats me. How ha doin'?You've got a good memory ! E-mail me after your comments on this thread . I'd definatly see good reading in this article don't you ? ...........Vince

I do agree with TIM 240 on the Idea the fewer Stock vintage cars are around,the more there value increases with time. But I think the Z sport article is simply intended for all of us to witness the "who's got the better machine " in the end .Something we're all not ever going to see the point,because the Z has remained an awesome base to refine,restore and enjoy,no matter how we build them, Period ! I don't own a V-8 Z,but my older brother has done several "Badass" V-8 Z's and we've always loved racing the crap out of each other.Strangly enough he loves the sound of my turbo and I his American growl But neither one ,will permantly swap our power plant choices.No matter how much we keep upping the power it's still a tie in the speed race !And we love it that way. I hope Sport Z writes the article in such a way that it simply exposes the many reasons we've all been drawn to the Z as our choice of enthusiasum,motivation and self expression and as well the canvass to show our skills whether it be autocrossing-restoring-fabrication-detail-and just plain old effort ! ..............Vince

Hey FL27, I still havent had luck posting pix here so I'll e-mail it to you,but it's of the T4/E downpipe adapter I turned on a lathe in order to make use of the v-band clamp in a real smooth 45 degree stainless exit.It actually slips into the I.D. and has a zero interior transition as it mates up. Maybe I'm dreaming ,but I could swear it changed the sound,spool response and back pressure for the better ! I won't lie,it took about 9 hours to prototype it on the lathe but it fits perfectly and lools so proper not to mention how easy it makes everything to install/uninstall.Let me know what you think I'll try to get more angles to you if you like ? Vince

monster, Do you know if the HKS version is any better as far as tuning than the Nismo steel adjustable one ? ...Vince

Tony D's the winner !What a small world we live in now that we have Ebay and Hybrid-Z ! And yes to the pix Tony,love to see tour fab. If this old timer can ever figure out how to load pix to this site ,I;ve certainly got some butes' to show,I may have to e-mail them direct to you.Your going to like this Aluminized air box tony .The carbon fibre' is stiff and silver and will hold boost great I'm sure. What are your plans as far as fuel for your new vintage find? Triple carbs or IBT's ? ....Vince

How cool is that ? I saw that HKS vintage airbox on EBAY and watched the auction,it ended at 255.00$ or so.The only reason I paid any attention to it is that I'm just now finishing -up an "old school Blow through on my 260-Z (small-bumper )Triple 44mm Solex/Mikuni's, and I'm making the "pre-box out of Aluminized carbon fibre' with machined billet flanges and a Turbonetics "Godzilla" blow-off valve I had on the shelf,. I had mocked it up in other materials to try it out and man it was loud and beasty ! You guy's oughta try it just for an old twist/new twist. I've got several 1st gen Z's ,and just wanted this one to be a little edgy compared to the others.So its got 15x9 Centerlines I bought new in the late 70's but never used.Also ZG flares and some special hood grilles,fender vents.Scarab rear deck spoiler and dual upturned stainless exhaust ,etc,etc. sorry to ramble on, I just Love these cars ! Vince

I remember when I was still using the stock turbo electronics on the ZX engines.about 60% of the glitches encountered were in the "FLAP" style throttle box.They were constantly posing "little gremlins" because of little things like grit build-up etc.It was constantly a reoccuring problem,and just replacing it only delayed it from the next go round. The next item a little more important in many directions was the flow rate of the injectors.(but that should go to another thread )If you havent taken them out and floed their CC's,and made sure their cleanliness is perfect and a really close flow rate ,it can kill any chance or good idle and acceleration no matter what else you replace. Perhaps you've already dialed that in,excuse me if I've missed you alresdy addressing that . Those problems were eventially what made me delve into using 3.0 mass air,harness,injectors etc. on my turbo 240-Z. (much better performance) .................Vince