chevyz240

Thanks for the encouraging comment...

Hi, you are correct! I think cardomain has really deteriorated, so I moved everything to Pro-Touring instead! Henrik

Hi Jack, as you saw, I have a thread at: http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/107091-quot-Mechanix-Menace-quot-An-LS7-motivated-chopped-and-heavily-modified-1973-Datsun-240Z. I have looked at your car, and it is very nice! I especially like all the lead work. Henrik

Hi guys, finally I'm back in business again! Not that I have made a lot of things, but at least I have made the hood hinge brackets, and attached the hood to the hinges. After that, I realized that the hood opening mechanism will be a bit more complicated than I initially thought, in order to keep the hood from torsionally oscillating when I open it. It needs to be supported at two places in the rear, rather than one. peej410, I don't know Erick. Did he work directly for Öhlins USA, or someone else? If you're specifying shocks for Porsche race cars, I hope you pick Öhlins! (I designed them.) And, as always, thanks for the nice comments from all of you! I must say that I have gotten a lot of inspiration from looking at the amazing number of fairly highly modified Z's from all over the world. I never thought they'd be so many! Henrik

Thanks again guys! (Seems I've said this before!) Thanks ZTR for letting me know about pro-touring.com! There are some fine cars there! Sure, you're welcome to visit, peej410! So, are you chopping the roof on your Z yet? Right now, I am enlarging my garage, so my substitute sports car, a Porsche 944 Turbo, doesn't have to sit outdoors during the winter. After that, I need to get back to work on the Z! Henrik

Thanks again, all of you guys! Rick, I looked at your car, it looks very nice. I wish I had my car on the road as much as you seem to have. Dan, first of all I must say that the picture you included whets my appetite! Do you have any more? Regarding side windows, I plan on using the template you can see in the pictures to make a mold out of. Then I will use this mold to hot-form Lexan or similar to create the double-curved shape I need. The quarter window will be attached flush to the body with some kind of frame. The door windows will be attached to a frame that will be removable from the doors, to allow cruising without side windows. TomsCoupe and trickz, go for it! If you got some inspiration from my little project, all the better. Henrik

Yet again, thank you everybody for the kind words! During the weekend, I have updated my site http://www.cardomain.com/id/chevyz240 with pictures and text covering the project up 'til today. I do have lots of more pictures, so if anybody is interested in something in particular, just ask, I might have a picture covering that. It will take a lot of time before the bodywork is finished, as I am planning on widening the fenders (or the entire body) in one way or another. The front fenders will definitely be glass- or carbon fiber, but I haven't decided if I'm going to use steel or composites for the rear fenders. If the rear fenders and the doors also are going to be made of composites, I might just pull a mold from the roof, and have a composite roof lying around too! That would mean that I have a full composite body handy! Could be good to have, if I sometime decide on a full tube chassis with double A-arm suspension all around, which is what I really want to build! Or, If the car gets body damage (God forbid!), it will be easier to repair. Not that I am sure I will ever do this, but if I do, would anyone of you perhaps be interested in these body parts? At least, you know what the roof looks like! Let me know. Terry, very nice to hear from you, and get a link to your photo album. A couple of years ago, I found some documentation on your car, but I lost it, and haven't found it on the web again. Your car looks extremely nice, and I have used it as inspiration! You have really done a thorough and serious job. It would be nice to see the car in real life! In general, I'm impressed with how many nicely modified Z's there are, all over the world! I knew it was a popular car, but I would never have imagined that there were so many heavily modified ones around, and good ones, at that. After browsing all pictures I have found on the web, I now realise that. I now have around 1000 pics of other Z's on my computer, too use as inspiration! (Well, some are saved to show me how NOT to do it too!) Henrik Schiölde

Steve, I definitely don't mind you putting "my" roof on your car! Regarding fitting you in the car, it may not be such a big problem. The roof is about 3 inches lower at the windshield top, but only around 2 inches lower where you have your head. /Henrik

Thanks again guys for the positive comments! I especially like that some of you think it's done with taste, that's what I have been shooting for. It shouldn't be totally obvious to a non-Z guy what I have done. I think Troy Trepanier said that one of the most pleasing comments he would get at car shows was "What a beautiful car, what have you done to it?" Regarding wheelbase and track, they will be increased to. I haven't decided on how much, and how I'm going to widen the fenders, but it will be done. As for the wheelbase, I have been playing with a few different options when drawing several side views of the car; moving the front wheels forward, or moving the rear wheels back too. I hadn't decided what to do, or to do it at all, but when I took the top picture on my site, the front wheel accidentally was a bit further forward (you may notice it, if you look carefully) and I think it looks great, so that's what I will do, eventually. Initially I just thought about this to improve on the weight distribution and the high speed stability, but it definitely looks better too! /Henrik

Thanks everybody for the inspiring comments! They gave me inspiration to creep back in the garage and continue working on my little "Mechanix Menace". As usual, nothing much happens in that way during the summer, but the swedish winters are good for getting something done. As for some of the questions and comments, the opening picture on my site:http://www.cardomain.com/id/chevyz240 is actually a photo with very little done to it. As the observant viewer can see, the picture below is what I started with; the car with the wheels standing beside it. All I have done is to draw the tires and the rear spoiler, plus painting the front cardbord spoiler on the computer. I also cleaned up some of the bracing that was in the car at that time. I may post some bigger pics here. The windshield is a stock, non-cut one from a Peugeot 309 (doesn't exist in the States, I think). Since it is heavily laid back, the roof will still be lower than stock (about 3 inches). Also, the windshield sticks under the cowl (which has been integrated in the hood). By positioning the wipers at the very windshield base, they will be invisible when not in use. The hood now has a 3/8" gap against the windshield, where fresh air is taken in to the drivers compartment. The stock intake on the cowl has been deleted for a clean look. When it starts to rain, and I turn on the wipers, the hood will automatically be raised around 1,5" to enable the wipers to sweep the windshield. It's very nice not having to cut the windshield along several sides, as a couple tend to break before you get one that stays in one piece, even if it's just cut along one side. This thread also inspired me to keep posting pictures, and continue the story on my web site, so check back there! I'll add some pics here too! Again, thanks for the positive comments! Please don't hesitate to ask more questions or give comments. I'm not the typical internet forum guy, but I'll try to answer ASAP. /Henrik Schiölde