BlackBeaut

Been experimenting and there's no way I can get a long enough bolt in - d'oh! I like the stud idea though, been searching a bit for a manifold type stud, M10x1.25 around 60mm long, there's not very many of those buggers around though, grrrr! I could always make my own but obviously they wouldn't be high tensile, but would be better than nothing, although as you say I can probably get away with nothing. Peej, thanks for the word on the twisted wire wheel, I've been looking for an excuse for one of those for a while Will also no doubt come in hand getting all the rubber underseal off the frame rail so the upright will mount nice and flush with the rail. Cheers, Rob

I don't believe there are any commercial kits available at the moment, but there is a completed car with one on US Ebay at the moment though. To me eye it's proportions are just wrong to be able to really call it a replica, but it does make for an interesting curiosity. Cheers, Rob

Yeah' date=' you noticed that eh? D'oh! I may have just shot myself in the foot there, why didn't I notice that one before?!! I have just thought though that I could maybe use a stud there, mounted in to the frame, which would sort that out completely. Otherwise I shall have to experiment - uh-oh! OK, sounds reasonable to me, a quick waft with the sandblaster to clean up the weird browny stuff and something a bit tougher on any nasty splatter.

Well they say miracles happen, and today I found myself at a loose end so I got my butt in gear for a change and made some progress. After being given the run around by so called professional welders with their "no probs mate, we'll be able to do that next week sometime" etc., etc., the old adage "if you want a job doing, do it yourself" came into play. I ditched the flux cored wire and got some argon/CO2 mix with 0.8mm wire and had at it. I'd say 75% of the welds were good first time, so I got the added bonus of practice with my angle grinder as well Definitely no close ups on the welds What's the general concensus on cleaning up welds now? I was thinking of just sandblasting the whole thing and slapping the POR15 on, but should I be considering grinding the welds at all? Colour me innocent! Hopefully now that I'm getting the hang of the welding, the second part of the cradle won't be so long in the making. Especially as I have a very nice set of control arms from ArizonaZ just waiting to get mounted to something! Cheers, Rob

Cool, glad to help. Glad you got on OK with PhotoShow too. I had to ask you're the first person I've come across that actually uses it, I guess you're using the Comcast branded version. If you look real close you'll see my name in it Cheers, Rob

Looks like Jon's on the ball here. This is an open carrier I pulled from a 200SX S13 short nose R200, looks pretty similar to me. Cheers, Rob p.s. How you liking PhotoShow?

There is a circlip type thing inside the carrier but it's not accessible. The only way to get the shafts out is to pull them put. Recommend a damn heavy slide hammer securely fastened to the shaft. Once you've got one out though you can use a long drift passing through the carrier and hammer the other side out as an alternative method. It's a right royal PITA though! Make sure you remember/label which side each shaft came out of too. One is considerably longer than the other on the viscous diff. Cheers, Rob

This probably isn't much help as it's all theory, but if you remember my billet subframe thread, when I got around to calculating where to position my new moustache bar working with OEM measurements, they indicated that the front of the R200 would indeed be raised at quite an angle in order to clear the cross member with the OEM isolator. I'd say ditch those big washers and save the prop shaft UJs! Cheers, Rob

Ouch!! Nice work though! Cheers, Rob

Cool! How the heck do you go about resplining the shafts though? Is there a cunning machine or is it a matter of using a rotary/index plate thing and a milling machine to cut each slot individually? Cheers, Rob

Mind if I jøin you?!!! :-? Cheers, Rob

I've buggered my back and an old whiplash injury has flared up so I'm staggering around like an 80year old who's lost his Zimmer frame, colour me happy!! So no Z car messing has been going on for a while. Which also means I still can't weld. I'll get there one of these days mate, honest guv! Cheers, Rob

Blimey, Aussie rhyming slang!! Whatever next?!! You'll have the boys down Whitechapel up in arms I tell you!! At least it makes a bit more sense than "Naturally, it meaning that either gong plain gauze side does not become the 8mm not stuffing." You gotta love translation software Cheers, Rob

I've been working on a Z32 hub conversion idea (amongst a million other things), in fact a machinist has had my plans for nearly 3 weeks now, I should probably see how he's getting on. My approach is slightly different to Jamie's and I'll end up with a slight (3/4") increase in offset. It does involve extreme metal removal from the stock hub mounting area and then welding (uh-oh!) on a new piece that acts as the adapter - the Z32 hub will bolt to that and it has the caliper mounting bolts. In theory it will work but until I get the machined parts back and really look at what is left over after machining the strut carrier I won't really know. What ever source hub though Z32, Skyline, 200SX it will be necessary to use matching CV joints with custom shafts to correct their length and most likely one of the short nose R200 or R230 diffs in the middle so the diff output shafts match the CVs. The Z31 is a different kettle of fish as it's much closer in design to the early Z stub axle so should be a lot simpler in concept. I think I've seen that Japanese site 260DET mentions too but can't remember the URL, sorry. Cheers, Rob

Lance is an awesome athlete and I really hope he wins this year, it'll be a great way to end his career. Next years Tour should be quite interesting as there's a lot closer competition between the riders just below Lance's level. I wonder who will become then next big tour leader though. I was gutted for Big Mig Indurain when he didn't make it on his last tour. That was back when I used to do a lot of cycling, now I just let other people suffer Alas that hasn't had a great effect on my waistline Cheers, Rob

Here's a close up of the spindle area I took when I did my front suspension last year, if that helps. There are a couple more shots in that gallery. http://www.zclub.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=886&size=big&sort=1&cat=500&page=2 Cheers, Rob

Hi mate, Have you tried Mike at Boost Performance in Nottingham? http://www.chevroletls1.com/ http://www.chevroletls1.com/chevrolet_ls1_6_info.html http://www.chevroletls1.com/ls16_custom_eng_parts.html http://www.chevroletls1.com/ls1prices_offer.html http://www.chevroletls1.com/trans_forsale.html Also goes by the name of 'Boosted LS1' on pistonheads. Cheers, Rob

Out of interest, what's the sump like on beemer sixes? Any obvious issues like the V12 has? I'm really interested in a BMW swap, but not anywhere like now! I just happened to be browsing Ebay and found a couple of 3.5 engines on there, one from a 5 and the other from a 7 series, just sparked the old brain a bit Cheers, Rob

In English please guys In relation to my needs here, all the tubing is 3mm thick mild steel. The only area of extra concern is where the vertical tubes meet the machined bush caps. Also there are some acute angles (where the diagonal sections meet the horizontal and verticals) would there be issues there with getting a MIG or TIG torch in close enough? Only had a chance to ring one guy today (closest to me so first on the list) unfortunately he's on an extended contract. Seems to be plenty more welders in the phone book though. Cheers, Rob

I'm hearing you guys. Will get on the phone tomorrow and see what I can find out. Might also check out the local college for some welding courses, would be good to maybe get a lot better with this craziness - I've got a rusty Z after all Cheers, Rob

Behold and fear my skill!! rats OK, in my defence I've never used a welder of any variety before. This is MIG with flux-cored wire as I haven't got anywhere I can inside. I couldn't be bothered to keep spraying on the anti-spatter spray for these tests, it does seem to help a lot though. I do think though that it would take a FBH to dismantle these works of art. I'm thinking maybe I should pop them on ebay, there's bound to be a complete nonce out there who can see exactly what my tortured soul was trying to put across with the conceptual mixing of the metaphorical nature of all that is transient I'm particularly pleased with the inclusion of spindle pin ends, adds a very Datsun feel to the piece Back in reality I'm not 100% convinced if I should weld up the rear frame, it didn't seem to make a huge difference which setting I had the welder on (it's a 150A turbo jobby) OK the bead was wider with the higher setting which is probably a good thing. I couldn't run the wire speed any higher than minimum without it getting stuck or something. None of the beads had that nice ridged look that the pros seem to be able to knock out in their sleep. Hmmmmmm. Still a bit of action with an angle grinder and a quick visit to the sandblaster would probably make all the difference. As for progress, I've got all the parts ready now. Sorted out the delrin bushes - absolute breeze to machine. Got the cut outs done on the two main uprights for the bush shells, and I've drilled the 4 mounting holes along the top piece. So it really is just time to get the damn thing welded up. Cheers, Rob

Do the outputs rotate the same way when you turn the input? Pretty high chance it will be a viscous diff if it's LSD as they're cheap and cheerful. How many bolts are there on the top row holding the back cover on? If just 2 then it's most likely a R200, if it's 3 then you're probably looking at a R230 and if so you HAVE to pull it apart for the good of the community Get those pics taken! Cheers, Rob

Hmmm' date=' that sounds like a pretty cunning idea, I'll pop one of the buggered bushes in the freezer today and see how it comes out. I was told a while back by a machinist that the best way he'd found to work poly was to grind it. Good plan that man! Cheers, Rob

Yep the main bar will sit flush against the frame rail, fear not. It appears (on my car at least) that the frame rails that the moustache bar mounting points are on are actually 15mm higher than the frame rail the subframe mounts to, so I've designed with that in mind and the two short vertical end pieces will stick up 15mm above the top of the main cross piece. Not quite sure why Datsun decided that the moustache bar mounting points would be at a different level to the subframe mounting points but it's too late to convince them otherwise Hopefully that makes sense, alas it's chucking it down outside so I'll not be stepping out to take a pic to show you what I mean at the moment. Cheers, Rob

Slow to none existant unfortunately Life has been getting far too much in the way. I have finalised my plans/dimensions though and got around to chopping up some metal for the rear section. I've also destroyed a set of moustache bar bushes on my lathe trying to get them down to the size I want. Machining polyurethane is a bitch! I haven't been able to locate any off the shelf bushes that are the right size either so I've ordered a bit of Delrin, it'll do for the time being. Getting real close to needing to learn to weld!! Cheers, Rob