BlackBeaut

Hmmm, looks like both those mills are the same model out of the same factory in China/Taiwan just rebranded. Overall the specs not bad on them, downside is the round column which makes life pretty hard to truly clamp the head solidly, so there's a risk of slight motion when trying a heavier cut on steel. If you're just going to be messing with aluminium then they'll be fine. The other slight downside is the belt change to control speed, bit of a pita. If you end up with a 3 phase machine then you can get an invertor that will allow near infinite speed control which will make life much easier when setting up for different jobs, lazy I know I'm in pretty much the same situation as yourself at the moment, looking for a decent mill so I can stop pretending with my lathe/mill combo. Much as I'd love a bloody big Bridgeport turret style I suspect I'll end up with something more modest. I quite like the look of this one: http://www.chesteruk.net/store/century_vs_mill.htm Due to it's variable speed, the table is a bit small though. Good luck! Cheers, Rob

From my experience of owning a Warco branded version I'd have to say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! To clarify that a bit more, the lathe element is fine, although missing useful features for easing thread cutting. The mill attachment is absolutely fecking useless!! For a start it's so far off the lathe slide bed that you need to buy a riser block just to get your work close enough and the lathe slide bed is far to small to easily clamp decent pieces too and has limit motion. I've had to replace the mill head on mine as the casting that forms the quill clamp cracked so I couldn't lock the quill in place so when milling anything the quill just judders up and down so I couldn't get a flat cut. The system used to raise the mill head up and down and clamp it in place is pretty useless and even when you think you've got it solidly clamped if you push the cutter a little too much then it can grab the metal and loosen the whole mill head leaving a lovely big gouge in your metal. I've recently been trying to cut a 12mm wide slot with mine and got this sort of result: That was with a 1mm depth of cut, so I had to go backwards and forwards 30 times to get through that bar. I'm now going to have to repeat that job using a 3/8" cutter, and then open the slot out to 12mm, to hopefully not overload the mill head I'm now activily watching ebay for a semi decent milling machine so I can stop wasting my time! Cheers, Rob

Are there any issues with just one (or maybe two) injectors feeding 3 cylinders? It would have to fire 3 times as often as the usual six injector set ups which seems to me like it would be a tough job at higher revs. I'm guessing you're not fitting Formula 1 spec injectors Cheers, Rob

Hey Brett, Feel free to copy/improve my design, it's pretty much the same as yours anyway. I didn't put the little lip on the top edge as once it's stuffed in to the isolator it doesn't move, and also the bump stop is a tight fit in to it which helps keep things centralised on the shock shaft. Aluminiums a good choice, I was going to use stainless steel but it's silly expensive and a bit of a git to machine. You shouldn't have any problems finding a local machine shop to turn them up for you, especially if you present them with a design drawing like you attached earlier! Most of the places I've used have never turned down a little extra after hours cash in hand work! Cheers, Rob

Sound pretty much like one I made up: Mine are designed for 2.25ID springs though so the inner part is a bit smaller. Granted I'm probably never going to install them as I'm thinking camber plates now but it kept me quiet for a bit making them Cheers, Rob

Hi Clint, Well, the diff project is pretty much done and so is gathering dust in the corner of my workshop for the time being. I want to revisit the front mount at some point in the future, hopefully when the chassis is up on a rotisserie so I can get better access to the area. In the meantime I've got a big job of turning two Zeds in to one. Strip down of my Zed revealed terminal front frame rails, fooked inner wings and moonscape floorpans. Luckily I've got hold of another chassis that's been completely rebuilt up front but has a knackered rear end. So the near future holds some tense moments where I hopefully end up with one complete chassis worth spending time on, rather than two bolloxed up piles of scrap metal Bit annoying as I've got other things I want to be doing that are more fun, but a bit pointless if I haven't got a chassis to put them on! Any pics of your work yet? Cheers, Rob

Dang, I can't believe you're not a dyed in the wool Texan Bill!! You've destroyed my image of you driving your Zed, with a couple of migrant workers hanging off the steer horns mounted on the hood and you wearing a Stetson so big you have to open both door windows for it to fit, whilst (of course) barbequing some 1/2 ton T-bones in a cunning propane (and propane accessories) oven fitted in the spare wheel well!! Good luck with the new job/life of course, I'm sure you'll be having fun up there before you know it! Cheers, Rob

Dim question, but how rigid would the nose section be made out of urethane? I've read numerous threads about urethane air dams bending back while driving due to air pressure. I just have it in my mind that urethane is a bit bendy compared to fibreglass parts. Good to have another source for these though, I'll be interested to hear reactions when someone buys one. cheers, Rob

MSA sell Grant wheels don't they? Pretty sure the one I got from them was Grant, not got the packaging anymore though: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/SW Cheers, Rob

Has your camera got a macro mode for super close ups? If not then stand further away and use the zoom. Looks mad though, it does look like someone's fitted a valve seat in the port entrance, it's square behind that round area right? Seems like an utterly daft thing to do!! Cheers, Rob

Well no one else is helping so I'll try a bit. Can you just clarify that you're planning on using the 280ZX T5 bellhousing? Cos the 280ZX has an L28 engine not a VG30 so I'm pretty sure that the bellhousing wouldn't mate up to the VG block. Ah, I tell you what! You want to look at the first series 300ZX Z31 turbo T5, 1984-1986 I think, that's a VG30 engine so you'd be OK with that bellhousing. First gear on that is around 3.35:1. Strength wise neither of the two T5s Nissan used was that great, they're 'Non-World-Class' T5s so don't have certain stronger bearings that the 'World-Class' T5s do. What some people are doing in their Zeds is taking the 280ZX T5 bellhousing and fitting a WC T5 behind that after a little mod work to the bellhousing. That's less likely to be possible with the Z31 bellhousing as that T5 has a stupidly long input shaft and you'd have a hell of a time finding a WC T5 with a similar length input shaft to use - note I'm ignoring little things like clutch spline count. Anyway, erm, that's probably less helpful than you'd really want so I'll shut up and hopefully someone more helpful will come along! Cheers, Rob

Dunno if it's any help, but over here you can buy timber like this as either regularised or, erm, not! Basically regularised has gone through an additional planing process so that all the timber is then guaranteed to be the same dimensions, and whilst still sold at the nominal 2x8 or 2x10 etc. it's actually slightly smaller by about the amount you describe. Cheers, Rob

Aha!! Thanks Cary, that's dead simple! I might be able to use that in a couple or so years Cheers, Rob

Any chance of a pic here Cary? I'm not really following what attaches to what, where the heims come in, or where you measure. So basically, I an't got a clue Cheers, Rob

Thanks for the pics Ron, I agree it looks like this could be an issue for anyone making these commercially, we all love big fat rims! I suppose you could add 2 or 3 different mounting points for the T/C rod clevis on to the LCA to give an option of mounting in stock location over to optimal BJ alignment. Cheers, Rob

Hi all, I've been looking in to this idea of pointing the T/C rod at the ball joint, and I've got a slight concern that it may cause interference with the wheel rim: As you can see the original 34* line is obviously closer in. My suspension is all stripped of my car at the moment so I can't double check this issue, any thoughts? BTW I took my dimensions from the chassis dimensions sticky, hopefully just about right Cheers, Rob

Are you on about the R230 or R200 from the Z32? R230 is a 3.69:1 ratio, R200 is 4.08:1. In the UK manual S14 200SX with SR20 engines run a 3.69:1 R200, so the Z32 R230 would be a good match, the UK auto S14 has a 3.92:1 ratio for reference. I believe the Z32 R230 has an odd pinion flange though, which might complicate the driveshaft build process, read make more expensive. Might be easier to just get the matching R200 diff from the same car that the SR20 came from, the R200 is more than strong enough unless you're planning insane boost, and it's lighter than the R230. If you do go with the Z32 R230 then the Modern Motorsports axles and stub axle companion flange is the way to go, I believe they have experience with Q45 axles as well, and Z32 R200s. As for fitting a shortnose diff to an early Zed, I can tell you it's not the easiest of things, although you don't need to go quite so OTT as I did Cheers, Rob

But the 1mm max. depth of cut sure makes for some boring hours going back and forth! I guess I'm learn to be patient using this machine though, whenever I try to push things it screws up and I'm back to square one. Ah, Zen and the art of Machining! There could be a book in that Cheers, Rob

Yeah, they don't just drop out of the lathe in 5 minutes, the little buggers! I did all the lathe work first with that pair, then milled the slot, I'm thinking that maybe the crappy milling was a result of not being able to clamp them very solidly. I'm in the process of trying another pair starting off by milling the slot, will see how that goes. I figured I might as well try making the female end rather than use a male clevis and extension middle piece as the tie rods I've got are long so don't have much room for a middle section and I didn't want to cut them down. It also just gives me an excuse to mess on the lathe rather than get earache from the GF about the mess I make everywhere Looking forward to seeing the new lightweight LCAs, sounds mighty intriguing! Cheers, Rob

Yup, I made the clevis up myself 'cos like yourself I couldn't find a decent female one that would do the job. I'm pretty pleased with them but I'll be remaking them as the mill head on my combo lathe/mill is shyte beyond belief and it made a mess of the slot surfaces, need to experiment with clamping the hex bar in different ways and somehow convince the mill head to stay in place! Cheers, Rob

Bloody 'ell Brian! Look what I've been toying with very recently: Out of interest where did you source the tie rod from? Mines from a Ford Escort (hangs head in shame), main shaft is 14mm with M14 threads, tapers to 12mm just at the ball joint end, I'm vaguely concerned about that being a bit flimsy but I got them cheap, so good enough for proof of concept. Didn't work out exactly like my 3D design, but close enough Good stuff Brian, look forward to seeing the new LCA! Cheers, Rob

Get friendly with the people in the UK club, http://www.zclub.net/ lots of experience over here of converting US imports to RHD! Cheers, Rob

Got to admit I'm impressed with this method, particularly the price!! One question though, what happens about the fiddly bits like the drip gutter and around the quarter windows? Cheers, Rob

Hey Owen, What, did only the UK Zeds come with wings then? They deploy at speeds over 70mph so you can literally overtake the slow people in front OK, back to reality, wings = fenders, having said that you might not call the inner wings inner fenders, but you know those useful bits of structural sheet metal that make up the sides of the engine bay. For cutting I've just been using thin cut off blades in my angle grinder and a chop saw for the tubing, so pretty much same set up as you have. Cheers, Rob