Dan Juday

Woj it looks great. Drive it around for a while. The nose of the diff moves about some between shifts and transitions from brake to power to brake. You may find you need a little more clearance. Put a little paint on the bolts and crossmember where they are close and see if any gets knocked off.

Rossman just touched on the key factor. Alignment. The position on the diff nose depends on the location of the tranny tailshaft. If you're running an L6 in the stock location than no notching is required (all else being equal). The nice thing about the RT mount is it's adjustability. In my set up I had to notch the crossmember much more that the pictures above. The idea is to get the u-joint angles as close to equal as posible to reduce driveshaft vibration. I wouldn't worry much about notching the crossmember. Once you take the bending loads from the diff mount off of it (by installing the RT mount), then you only have the tension/compression loads of the unibody/rear LCA's acting on it. My un-studied W.A.G. is that these are relatively small. MHO is that if you left a half inch tall vertical flange after notching you should be more than fine. Some guys have cut the middle of the crossmember out all together. Personally I wouldn't do that but I have no emperical evidence to say that is a bad idea. I just know that there are still tension and compression loads there so it tends to be a good idea to complete the box.

That's not good. Any one or more of those posibly. No. I think you should consider pulling it apart to take a closer look. I have the same set up and it's out of the car and apart at the moment. If you can't find any damaged or wrongly installed parts (like a clutch disk installed backwards)and you want to compare set ups I don't live that far from Corte Madera. Also, what size master and slaves are you using? Is it the stock Camaro slave?

Sure. That's kind of how coilover kits work (excepting for spring length and rate). Keep in mind that the lower you go the more travel you lose. This is why we section strut tubes when we want to go lower than an inch or so. Getto coilovers! As long as you don't go too far it's a better low-buck way of lowering your car than cutting off coils. EDIT: Just so I don't get called on the carpet, anytime you lower a strut suspension you change static caster and camber angles. Small changes shouldn't cause you any problems though IMHO.

The sooner it gets hot, the sooner it starts convertin'. So yes, the closer to the motor the better. But, you knew someone would ask, why are you putting a cat on a '72?

Glad to see the Christmas decorations got put away.

I think they will work with your car too. Shoot me a pm with your e-mail address and I'll send you some pictures from several different angles. The positioning of the lights is critical to how the finished product will come out. I probably tried 15 different postions untill I resolved at the what is there now. I can fill you in on some of the minutia of the details as well.

I like the Z32 lights. Yes, I'm clearly biased. But the lights themselves are interesting. The complex curves and the multi-layer construction (now extremely common and overly exaggerated on most new cars) are what make them a nice piece to look at. I think they could still be made to look nice on your S130 even with the rather squared off design theme of the car. It's the dang body shop jumping the gun on you that botched it. When I did these on my 240 I spent hours and days aligning, realigning, adjusting, cutting metal, patching metal back in, looking, thinking, starting over. In the end the entire rear panel from the edge of the hatch down had to be removed and a completely reshaped custom rear made to coalesce with those beautiful taillights. It was a ton of work and money, and in the past I've said I wouldn't do it again, but now with the benefit of time I have to say I'm very glad I did. The car is beautiful and unique. I say cut your losses and find a true craftsman if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself. Find someone who WILL WORK WITH YOU, not a production/collision shop. It will be the only one like it.

Oooooo... I see a new clutch in your future. Oooooooo....

You can do that too if you like the look of hood pins. Nothing against pins, I'll be using a type of hood pin on my next hood. The JTR parts IMHO are cheap at $45. They are well engineered, quality constructed and time proven. They are easy to install and leave a nice clean stock appearance. Moving the latch to either the left or right of the distributor however requires a lot of work relocating both the hood and body sections. In my mind that's just reinventing the wheel. Apply your engineering efforts to a more noble cause. This one's been solved.

My guess: The friction material of the clutch disk is gone ("...There is also what looks to be fiberglass shavings in there..."). The metal part of the clutch disk (the part the friction material was attached to) has welded itself to the pressure plate or flywheel. With the motor off shift it into 1st gear. Then start it and see if you can shift it as Bloz up described. If the tranny is good you should be able to do that.

Don't move the latch. Pete P. did that, ask him. Much simpler, easier, better to buy the JTR two piece latch bracket and install as described in the JTR manual. http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Parts_DAT200.html DAT-107 & 108

Are you going to be drag racing? The th350 is not a good match for a street driven Z. If you're dropping an LS motor in why not use a modern OD automatic? It'll be a much better street car with a fourth gear.

These are the fan relays from 3rd gen f-body cars, but the same relays were used in a bunch of GM cars. They're shaped like an oval cyclinder about two inches tall. They have the diode built-in. They work fine for the low speed but I've melted two in the high speed circuit. When I get my car back together I'm going to steal the relays out of Scotts Z while he's not looking.

Keep us up to date on your testing. I keep burning up relays. I use an aftermarket dual fan controller that I've wired with additional relays to run the Ford two speed but the GM relays don't hold up. And the temp sensor is a bulb in the radiator fins (not the best way to go). You have thought this out well. Get the bugs worked out (if any) and I'll be your first customer.

That is an Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV, about '75 or '76.

I understand this. Keep in mind these cars don't have power steering. With 245's on the front, cranking the car through a parking lot is a real upper body workout. I can't imagine what any wider fronts would be like.

Dang! Now I've got to go test mine. Wait, how do I know my scales are accurate when I weight my pale of water?!

I have 245's on the front and 305's on the rear. "How will my car handle?" is a question with too many variables. Shocks, springs, ride height, corner weights, I could go on and on. And then how do you plan to drive it? If you're drag racing and mild to spirited street driving you should be fine. Beyond that, John had probably the most accurate answer you're going to get.

It's not used. I made a support for the bottom of the airdam out of a sheet of aluminum that fit inside the lower lip of the airdam (attached with RTV) and attached to the bottom of the radiator core support. Without something down there the whole bumper/airdam just hangs from the bottom of the sugar scoops.

I like the RX-500 too. The nose is straight off the AMX III concept. A car designed by... wait for it... an Italian. In truth all automotive designers steal ideas from each other. I give credit to the Japanese for as many mostly original designs as they have. Even if I don't personally care for the "distinct Japanese design sensibility".

That is a photo shop job, right? If it's a real car I stand by my original statement: "... you may be disapointed ...".

That's where I saw that. I guess my memory is better than I thought.

Why did that get tossed in the shed? Did the mods want you to keep it all in one thread? Repost the pics in this thread and lets talk about it. I enjoy talking body mods.