SSflyer

Thank goodness you weren't trying the 'Motorcycle Mod' when you used the special tool!

OK, I'm in on this thread....

Vintage Air is probably the best way to go. It gets rid of all the slides and vacuum stuff. The cost to refurb the original Datsun parts is almost as much as buying a complete Vintage Air unit. Search on Vintage Air and you'll get all sorts of good information.

Blueovalz wins.

I used the pins from some of the wiring I deleted in my harness. There's probably some circuits you won't need. To remove the pins from the connector you can use a small paper clip that has been hammered flat. There's a small tang that holds the pins in place and when you slide the paperclip in along the outside of the pin it releases the tang. Splice your new wire on and you're good to go.

Haven't seen a post in a long time. Who else is MIA that used to be a regular poster?

Pics?

Wow! What a change! That interior is a huge upgrade from what it was. So, how many races/tickets are in your recent history?

I think you need to make them explain exactly what 'not operational means'. Is there a specific definition about how long a car has to be in a spot without being moved to be classified as non-op? There has to be a time limit. AND how do they track how long a car has been in a certain spot without being moved? People routinely push dead cars from one spot to another just to forstall getting it towed. I think too that they would be obligated to post a tow warning on the vehicle. Just because a car has the starter out doesn't necessarily mean it's going to stay that way. It sounds to me like a gravy contract for the tow company because they know most people will just pay the fees.

Yep, it happens all the time. It seems like every guy in the city over 50 years old has had a Z-car and wants to talk about them. There must have been like 5 billion of these cars on the road at one time. Now when a hot 20ish chick wants to talk at a stop light, THAT'S a whole new ballgame!

While you're at it (ever heard that before??), take the time to bondo up all the spotweld depressions on the shock towers. Makes for a real clean look.

A buddy called to tell me that pics of my car are being used in the advertising for an upcoming local car show. http://radiantchurch.com/photoGallery.asp?dept=carshow&gallery=carshow07 I know, I know....it's just plain bragging, but it's nice to see that somebody else likes the looks of it!

Ummmmmmmm...... Are you crazy? 121 on dry rotted tires? You do realize that the bodies on these cars are just about beer can material. Your life is worth a set of tires.

I sandblasted the shell on my car and it came out fine. The other panels, hood, doors, hatch, I used a cheapo 4" x 9" jitterbug sander with 60 grit paper and it didn't take all that long. The bad news is that I did the sandblasting in my garage and I'm still finding sand after 3 years! The effort was worth it though because you'll never ever be able to get the paint and crap out of places like the door jambs, air box, hatch channels etc. if you try to sand them by hand.

Have you noticed any smoke from under the car, or any burnt smell? It's hard to imagine a clutch dying in 4k miles. Have you pulled the trans and inspected the clutch yet? Maybe it's just glazed, or maybe your slave isn't releasing all the way. What size master cylinder are you using?

You may want to replace all the bushings too. Then there's the old favorites....dash cover, door panels, stereo, HID headlights, billet grill, seat covers, carpet.

Wow! Way more responses than I expected. I really do love my Z, after literally thousands of hours and big bucks put into restoring it, I'd hate to get rid of it, but I an so sick of hassling with the smog stuff. Last year was the first year it was registered and I had the car to four or five different shops trying to find out why it wouldn't pass, and I'm just not feeling it about having to do that again. The car does have cats and is otherwise AZ street legal, so there's not much to do about improving how it's running other than cleaning every sensor and cheating a little on the idle speed. I'm sure this will all get resolved, but it's so frustrating to have this same problem again.

I'm just about there. The thought actually went through my head this week that it's time to sell the car (LS1/280Z). I've enjoyed a whole year of driving it, and the attention it gets is pretty cool too, but it looks like I'm going to have to dump another wad of cash into it, again. It's registration renewal time and that means another round of trying to get it to pass smog. When I built the engine I made the mistake of putting a more aggressive cam in it, and coupling that with the LT headers makes it just about impossible to get it to pass. It failed miserably on the first test this week (four times the limit on idle hydrocarbons), so I'm going to try cleaning the O2's and the MAF, and maybe bumping the idle up a little, but if it still won't pass I'll most likely pull the cam out and go back to stock. That means at least a hundred bucks for parts and another $500 tune. I guess that the second most common cry, right after "While I'm at it" is to say "Just one more thing will make it right". So, am I the only one who contemplates bailing on a 99% complete car?

EBAY is your friend!

Also, check to see that your fuel pump relay has a good ground. On my LS1 I had the same problem you're having, and it was just a bad ground. Have somebody put a fingertip on the relay while the key is being turned and see if you feel it click on...

I wish mine had looked that good when I bought it! Your shell looks pristine compared to some of the other pictures that have been posted here. There's nothing in those pics that looks very hard to fix. Besides, the joy in the project is doing as much as you can by yourself. There's alot of satisfaction in taking a sheet of plain steel and forming your own replacement parts & panels. Have you had a chance to look at the airbox in front of the windshield?

Most of the ones on Ebay have been around $500. I do remember a couple posts about guys finding them at a Pick-n-Pull for alot less.

Not a real race, more like pissing on someone elses hydrant. Leaving work tonite I hit the first light red. There was a Scottsdale weenie in front of me in a new Eclipse, and he spends the whole light lookin in his mirror. The light changes and he does the bat out of hell take off down Bell Road. Now I know the next light down always goes red before anyone can get there, so I loaf down and this time I pull up next to him. I had made up my mind that he wasn't going to do that crap again, even if it took a launch. (I don't like street racing, but once in a blue moon ya just gotta.) The light changes and he trys the jackrabbit start again, but this time I stay just in front of him. I hear his engine get louder and louder, but I keep him even with the back tire. So we get up to about 70 and I'm not even half way down on the loud pedal when he decides to drop back. Of course as soon as there was a car in front of me he did the flyby, but I thought it was funny anyway. It's strange how all the import guys want to rev at a Z-car, but none of them ever bother to read the LS1 280Z plate. Oh well, they all get a good look at it when I finally get past 2500rpm.

If you have an Ace Hardware close to you, go there. They have the best collection of metric hardware anywhere! Heck, if you can't find what you need, send me a PM and I'll get them and send them to you.

Same sort of deal here. Semiconductor fab in the Phoenix area, part of a European controlled worldwide company. When the industry nosedived about 5 years ago, this site took drastic cost cutting and cost reduction actions. This goofy bunch even went so far as to turn off the lights in the Pepsi machines to save electricity. Well, after years of lost employee perks, lost Christmas parties, no raises, etc., we became one of the most (if not THE most) profitable manufacturing site in the company (out of approx. 20). Our reward... plant closure. We led the company in almost every manufacturing category, in innovation, in awards, but it wasn't enough. Last week was a worldwide satellite broadcast from the big cheeses in Europe to brag about their accomplishments, and during the Q & A portion the question was asked how management could justify closing one of the most profitable sites and moving our work to one that has lost money for 15 years. The answer, from the CFO.... "We don't look at profitability, we only look at cost". Because the receiving plant is in Asia and the labor costs are less, I guess loosing money is ok. 3000 people out of work in the U.S. just so they can pay less in Singapore because according to the top 2 guys in this 10 billion dollar compay "We don't look at profits...".