Cruez

$500 ?? Damn... Looks like a nice find for that kinda money.

I wuld have to say that the F4U Corsair and the SR-71 Blackbird are my favorites. Here is a pic of a Corsair and an F18 (I believe) that was at a show in Hickory a few years ago... (I had a camera with next to no zoom) It was pretty cool watching a prop plane and a jet chasing each other.

haha... the 'ole Upper Decker

Nice job on his wagon...

The original undercoating was scuffed and prepped with Xylene then got a coat of roll on Herculiner.... nasty stuff to put on, but its definately not going anywhere anytime soon. The entire underneath was done this way.

I did mine in the winter... It was around 35-38 degrees in the garage at the time.. a lot of it popped of pretty easily in big chunks.

The Z wheels have a little something extra.... The lips were polished, the centers were powdercoated in gunmetal and the small insets on each spoke have an illusion amber coating on them that shows up in direct sunlight, then they were powdercoated clear.. I'll try to get a good pic..

What I am so happy about is the non existance of rust on this car... I can't stand repairing rust issues. I'll be pulling the other two doors off and gutting them before it goes for its white basecoat..The paint will be a two tone.. I'll leave it at that until its actually shot.. The little L18 will be staying in it for a while, I did get a dual SU intake setup for it and will be added shortly... I am working in Charlotte now and I was going to get some driving time in it when its complete. The 4 banger will be a little easier on fuel than the Maxima. Eventually it will get an engine swap .. but for now the Z 5 speed that is going in it with the L4 will suffice for a while.

While the Z is on a hiatus for the moment... I thought I would post some updated pics of the wagon project... Should be doing to paint in the next week or so.. The day I picked it up Engine pics (not finished yet.) Valve cover is a flip flop type powder of burnt orange and green...with polished lettering and all cleared.. All the engine parts minus the block are all coated. Swaybar color Front parts.. Rear parts. Original rear height Original rear end then and cleaned and coated and refurbed And the car as it stands Hopefully it will be on the road sooner than I think...not much time in the day to get anything done..

The VQ 3.0 out of a Maxima weighs alot less..I've heard a 350Z 6 speed will mount to it with a little modification. quotes: VQ30 Shortblock - 127lbs weighed by JClaw on his bathroom scale - including rotating assembly, no heads, no timing cover, and of course no intake manifold. VQ30 long block - 246lbs weighed by ME at aluminum recycling facility. No intake manifold, obviously including rotating assembly, block, heads, timing equipment. VQ30 long block (different one than above) 315lbs - lifted by my buddy and I onto bathroom scale at my buddy's house with no problems whatsoever.

Even at 450 for outgassing, some poor castings will still outgas. Especially older stuff thats full of contaminates. Some powders will cure at lower temps... all depends on the type of powder, i.e. polyester, urethane, TGIC, hybrids, epoxies.. I've had some that cure at 325. But most are around 385-400.

bwahahaa !!!

I occasionally use the old regular oven.. for small parts.. bolts, brackets, etc.. Most of the stuff goes in the bigger oven now, 36"x36"x72". I needed the extra space, especially for rear end housings, clearing stainless and polished aluminum trim, and other "long" parts...

Although it was a nicely paying job, I don't miss the BS that went with it.. There are not very many jobs in the area that pay close to what I was making.. and none in my field. The company I worked for has somewhat of a monopoly in a large area. I am trying every angle I can to keep my family afloat. The PC business has been growing, just not enough at the present time to replace my former salary. It was mainly a hobby that generated some additional income for my projects. (haven't really advertised much either...) As far as the work ethic goes... I did what I was supposed to and a little more, and still got shafted or overlooked on numerous occasions. I just bit my tongue and kept going. Its hard to keep your personal moral up when stuff like that happens. Our supervisor was only there about 4 hrs a week. I have to admit, it was a little hard to swallow my pride to apply for unemployment benefits, I never have in 18 years but it had to be done. I have some local (and long distance) repeat business that helps out, I just need to generate some new prospects. Here is a pic of the last batch that went to the west coast..

They asked about my personal cell bill.. They asked if I could provide them a copy (not required) to help prove my innocence. I provided 2 months worth that stated my case. Almost all of my calls (including friends and family) were before work, at lunch or after work.. Thats sorta funny... My ex-stupervisor is in Lenoir... For some reason he has seemed to have a personal vendetta against me from day one.. During the investigations, I managed to collect a lot of information that proves my allegations...Not to mention my co workers are well aware of things that go on.. The way the interviewing person that was investigating seemed to have no clue what powder coating was (and this was an investigator?? ) or even what a thumb drive was... kept calling it a USB port.. and lots of other simple things...where was she from ??

NC is an "at-will" state... however, according to some things that I've read. They are supposed to abide by their own policies also, or that is deemed illegal.. I have run across a few things that were violated.. "frequent internet usage" is not in the handbook. Its listed as "occasional personal usage is ok as long as it doesn't affect job performance" ..thats a little vague.

Why is it that your so called "superiors" have closed minds? and think nothing they do is wrong? I was fired this week due to "misconduct". They cited excessive internet use and my part time hobby, Technacolor Powder Coating. I have been biting my tongue for years as a Telecommunications Engineer at my former place of employment. Being treated sub par (compared to other engineers in my group) and unfairly, though I could perform more actual work and had more referral sales than anyone else in the group. (Not even required) I had a USB drive that I was using for my music in the company’s computer that also had some invoices that I had on there. I stepped on the drive and partially broke the connector. The computer would not read it anymore. So I gave it to my brother (who also worked there) to see if his computer would read it, it did. So I had him email me the files to save them. During an investigation on something else that had happened in the building. My computer was taken to be analyzed, with the files that were on the USB drive. A few of them I had altered at work during breaks during the day. (that’s where they were saying that I was running my hobby from work, a couple of invoices in a couple of months ??, please.) They tried to say that going to sites like Autozone.com, JC Whitney and NADA had something to do with powder coating. WTH are these people thinking..?? Not to mention there is someone that had been falsifying time sheets that would add up to thousands of dollars, which I reported...9 months ago... nothing had been said, and it still is going on..... lots of things like that... but somehow I was the one who was let go.. Anyway..... that’s the story in the shortest way I could think of... There are lots of other details but too long winded to get into. I guess I am going to try to do the powder coating thing full time, I haven't really advertised or given out any more cards since I had enough to keep me busy on my time off. So if I ramped that up I might be able to get a decent business going. At least I won't have any idiots trying to keep me down. Biggest part will be trying to make up for the financial loss, since my wife is a tutor part time and I was supporting her and my two school aged children.. Insurance is a biggie.. I have a feeling that legal action might be a route to take. Thanks for listening to my "short" rant... Wish me luck...

I like it..... all but the windshield... it doesn't flow with the car right. It looks like it needs to have more of an angle than it does... and shorter.

Do it..!!! I bought my '71 510 wagon last June http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=111565 with a one way ticket from North Carolina to Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a great trip... wish I would have taken more time but it was fun. Looking forward to finishing up the project and driving it somewhere else far away Checked the basics, got a small gas tank, new wipers, fuses, etc. and took along some tools just in case. The only thing I did was tighten up the steering box a little.. We made the trip back home over 2200 miles in about 2 days, with a little of sightseeing (on what time we had). 12 hrs driving the first day to Denver, CO.(on no sleep) and 36 hrs straight the next day to get home. I don't think I would go in that small amount of time again, but definately do the trip again.

Sweet.... that sucker will move

Clip of mine... when it was running.. http://www.cruez.com/cars/z.wmv (the resonator is about burned out)

I just did my wagon with the ZX struts/brake setup. Hardest part was getting the perches off.. and that wasn't bad. I hope to have the car rolling again in a week or so.. I just need to figure out what M/C to go with.

I have the last one... it was cheap from harbor freight... I used it a couple times for some small spots on something I was working on.. goes through sand fairly quickly..

Ditto what Mike said... I have done quite a few candy colors over chrome... One set of wheels that we did, bubbled up... needless to say, they don't use that particular chrome shop anymore... The best alternative to that is just polishing aluminum instead of chrome... hard to tell the difference..

You can powder coat over chrome... I have done quite a few sets of cycle wheels in translucent powder over chrome...blues, reds, greens etc... If its a crappy chrome job you may have some problems... factory type chrome usually holds up well..