Mikelly

It's a 76 280Z. The tailights are Euros and I bought them from a member here. Swapped him some parts for the lights about 3 years ago... Mike

The folks We talk with regularly about commercial construction have a saying about skylights... There are those who leak, and those that will... I'll add a few more lights and leave the daylight to things outdoors! Mike

I have the can down in the garage, but I ain't running the 200 yards to get it. It's a mopar Silver. It was supposed to be "viper" silver, but looks WAY better. Mike

Just launched fine for me, and I wasn't logged in to yahoo. Mike

For those of us in colder climates, Insullating and sheeting the ceiling does help keep the heat closer to where you work... Mike

I've had a couple people e-mail or PM me about other specs for this car... The car has Pete Paraska's full subframe installation done. Chris, the previous owner did this work. Chris also removed all sound deadening. I installed coil overs and my front suspension design on the car. It has Jamie Taylor's aluminum five lub hubs and Ford Cobra 13inch rotors with PBR calipers on the front. I'll use Ford Cobra rear rotors and Chevy Z06 rear calipers on it. The bias and brakelok are in the cockpit. I've got a set of Koni 8610s on order, and I'll be installing camber plates on all four corners. I also plan to order a set of the AZC rear control arms to employ the rear toe adjustment for the car. The rear drivetrain is Q45 with Tim Hepburns Axles. I may buy a set of Ross' Forged stub axles drilled for both ford and chevy patterns (As Jamie's front hubs are). The tranny is a Tremec TKO600. I'm using a McLeod Bellhousing, Centerforce clutch and pressure plate, CAT Internal Balance Flywheel, and Tilton Hydraulic release bearing. I'm also using a tilton Master Cylinder. The motor is the 383 stroker I've had since 1998. It has new forged bits and will possibly lose the FI for the initial run in. It should put down a solid 400WHP, as DD2000 claims over 520 at the crank. Who knows, but I suspect it'll haul the mail. Heads are Dart Conquest straight plug units running 2.o5/1.60 valves. I'm running a hydraulic valve train and the compression should be just south of 11:1. I have some longtube headers, but they are pretty mangled and the ground clearance may suffer if I run them... I may go back to block huggers... If I can find them in 1 3/4s... The cage and subframes make this car extremely rigid. When Jamie and I were rolling the car down the alley and to the car trailer, we rolled out into an intersection. The right front wheel picked up in transition from one street surface to the other... This car is going to be a beast with the parts mentioned. Can you tell I'm excited? I need to sit down and start working out my plans to get the car back together... most of these parts are in house... what to do first is the real question... I believe I'll get her on jack stands and start prepping the motor for install. Mike The oil system right now is a

You guys made me think while I was in the garage working on my Z for the first time in 6 months. So I went and took pics of the existing 26X32 shop space... Check http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z and check Mikes existing garage folder to see the mess... The shelves that are along the back wall were there when I bought the place and I haven't torn them down yet, even though they sag more than a set of 80 year old breasts... Mike

So today, after bolting the ZG Flares to my ride, and the front spoiler, and playing with a few other things, I decided to fish out the carbon panel I bought from Paulo. I started to test fit it onto the taillight section for my Z. I'm running the EuroSpec tail lights. Jamie hit them with clear coat for me while he was painting the car. The studs paulo used in the carbon panel do not line up perfectly with the holes in the taillights. What I will have to do to make this work is elongate the holes in the body for the lights so they can slide side to side about 1/8th inch, each light. This will allow the studs to line up. Also, the studs are WAY to long, so plan to have to cut them off. Be sure to run the nut down on the stud, and then cut the stud off, back off the nut to repair the threads... Pics can be seen in the link I posted for My car coming home... Mike

BJ, The Cage ran me $2400 and to look at it, everyone says it was money well spent... I gave Jamie $3000 and bought a second set of his aluminum hubs in the process of that purchase price, and Jamie did some welding on the car for me, to include all the holes being filled and the seat frame rails in the driver's side that are tacked in. Jamie had a lot of work to get the car square again, so although the paint isn't perfect "show" quality, the car is straight and it looks very good. I think for a track car, this is the way to go. Mike

I"m in the middle of uploading more pics with the flares and spoiler "temporarely" mounted, along with the powder coated door handle and a test fit of the carbon taillight panel. I also spaced out those Ford five stars to make them look a little more ideal for the flares... More to come in the days ahead... Mike

OK Mike, but see by that line of thinking, then we shouldn't be modifying datsun Zs at all, since they are becoming harder and harder to buy as well... See where I'm coming from? Mikelly...

We start on the 24X40 extension onto mine (Which you can see in my "new home folder and the mikes painted zcar folder at http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z) in the spring. Goal is to have it 60 ft. wide with a 32ft. section that is 26ft. deep (The existing) and the new depth for the addition will be 40ft. The goal is to be able to park my car trailer inside of it (24ft. long and 8.5 ft. wide) when I'm not in town. Don't want what happened to jt1 to happen to me... While I'm awaiting the day when construction starts, I've already had the power panel installed and the meter base mounted for the new 200amp service. I've also upgraded the existing lights, and had some other wiring added for many more outlets and a box for wiring the compressor up in the existing 26X32 section. Mike

The MSA kit can be bought direct from MSA. I'm a fan of the JTR kit myself. I do recommend buying the JTR manual regardless of the kit you employ to install your SBC... Good luck! Mikelly

WOAH... TIME OUT... OH MY GAWD... Gang we've got a NEW MEMBER who has DONE HIS RESEARCH and used our VAST SEARCH ( ) function LONG BEFORE posting a SINGLE question... TEEKASS, I must commend you on your efforts, and on doing exactly what we ask of our members here on this site... You sir have indeed been used in the admin forum as an EXCELLENT EXAMPLE of the kind of new member we're looking for... Excellent research, GREAT questions, and good comments. Welcome, and ENJOY!!! Mike

Wow... I saw a couple of those pink cars... Looks the same general color of "pink"... And I wondered then why the hell they'd paint it THAT color... And to go thru the trouble of actually buying one, and PAINTING it that color, only to repackage it and sell it on ebay! Mike

This particular car came into my posession in the spring of 2002. Chris Cloude (The guy I started designing control arms with) decided to leave his wife and kids and needed to unload the car. I paid him $1000 for the car and then turned around and sold $1200 worth of stuff to members here... Denny took the S&W 12point cage off my hands, and someone else got the Wheels that were originally scotties. I actually started working in earnest on the car in late summer 2003 and then got sidelines when on Sept. 14th 2003 (Day before my wedding anniversary) a piece of sheetmetal from the storage boxes behind the seats cut an artery in my right arm. Trip in the rescue squad for that little episode, and now I'm down to one artery in that arm. Not one week after that incident I got a bladder and kidneyinfection that sidelined me for another 6 weeks. I let the car sit while I screwed around with the flared White Zcar that we installed a bunch of tubing into and did some coil overs/fuel cell on. I think jt1 bought that one off me for $1200-1500 right before I bought my Vette in the winter of 2003. Then I got sidelined screwing around with the Vette while the Zcar sat. I finally sent the car off to have a cage installed in May 2005. Piper Motorsports in Manassas (now in sterling) Va. did the cage work and the cage is a work of art. All winter, at the other house, I tinkered on the car to keep my mind off the stresses of starting a new company. It was therapy. However, in the spring of this year the wife and I started toying with buying a new place with more space... Once an offer was made and accepted, I called Jamie and we worked out getting the car to him for paint. The last week in April I sold the Vette. First weekend in May I delivered the Datsun to Jamie and then sold the car trailer. The week after that I bought the enclosed trailer. So Jamie has had this car since May. He did some cool stuff on the car for me, like shaving the door locks, welding in the final pieces for the radiator support, and welding in the driver's side braces for my seats. Jamie also smoothed out the stuff I did on the radio antenna hole, the holes for the freshair vents behind the 1/4 windows, and making the fuel filler work better. Jamie also smoothed out the door sills on the tops of the doors. Onward and upward gang! Mike

Gang, Seriously, Do some research. A correct and good condition scarab will NOT sell for a large sum, any quicker than a non-correct JTR. And in many cases, after driving the two, a buyer may well select the JTR car over the Scarab. More people convert them than keep them as produced, and the ONLY reason they are well known is that they were the first aftermarket produced V8 conversion. I went through this a while back with another guy, and after he did his research, he found this to indeed be the truth. They aren't worth any more, or any less than any other well executed V8 Zcar. Mikelly

Oh I don't remember... Some ebay specials from about four years ago... Mike

I don't think that Pink car is modified... Think I've actually seen those at "walmart in that color... Mike

I responded in your other thread, But don't be fooled... They aren't that "collectable" and certainly not as fun to drive as a well sorted JTR setup... I say dive in and make it into something you'll truly enjoy driving. Mike

Horse crap... We changed Jim McNemar's Scarab big time... If you have the funds and want to make the car yours and then lay your mark on it, I say DO IT. Otherwise, let someone else get it and do what they will with it... Bottom line is the original scarabs weren't all that "collectable" and certainly weren't all that balanced... We threw lots of those "scarab" parts in the garbage or sold them... Mike

After what seems like a long time (To me!! ), the Z is home... Pics are up on http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z Look in a new folder called Mikes Painted Zcar Project folder. Jamie can tell you guys how I laid my keys on the work bench in the car trailer, and then promtly locked the trailer... So we worked quite a while to cut thru the Master Lock to free my keys! Truck was locked, and the spare trailer key was safely in it... Oh well, I'll start doing work to put her back together, starting tomorrow... I missed this car... Mike

Yes, Link to ordering please!!! Mike

I'm starting a "wheel Sources LINKs" Stickie! Please post links to any wheel sources, and especially those of custom manufacturers... This is ultimately selfserving for me since I'll be purchasing track wheels for my car very soon... Mike http://www.team3wheels.com/ac/ http://www.ccwheel.com/files/home.php http://www.kodiakracingwheels.com/wheels.html http://www.ssrwheels.com http://www.konigwheels.com/catalog_list.cfm?categoryid=1 http://www.borbet.co.uk/ http://www.bbs-usa.com/ http://www.mrt-wheels.com/ http://www.fikse.com/ http://www.forgeline.com/ Keep them coming...

While you're in Germany, If you get to Sembach, Check out the indoor kart track there... It's like NOTHING you'll see in the States... And SOOOO MUCH FUN!!! They took thhree aircraft hangers and joined them together with portable canvas buildings and pumped heat in... Place is easily 8/10ths of a mile indoors.. It's a BLAST!!! Also, If you find yourself near Ancona Italy, Take the Hydrofoil over to Zadar, Croatia for a day-trip, and if you can swing it, stay overnight! Talk about BEAUTIFUL WOMEN... None hotter than those Croatians on the Adriatic Coast! Mike