Hugh

One more post just to compliment everything - great job on your first time out! The gray flares look great. I like them when they don't match the paint color of the car. If you were going to match them, something that blends into the body would look better to me. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the advice on the community college program. I never considered that, but its a great idea. I have looked at some other courses here locally and considered a few ideas. (OCC and Goldenwest - I'm in Huntington Beach)

I know, I know, I was just referring to the concept. I wouldn't actually use chicken wire. Something suitable for the usage.

This is what I have right now (but even a little more beat up since this pic) I'd like to hide the bottom of the radiator, shave the turn signals, and fill the gaps... just one piece of fiberglass or urethane that wraps around the bottom and comes up just under the lights would be ideal.

Yeah, you've got the right idea. I can do a completely custom grill, I suppose. I may just do the chicken wire style or something along those lines... unless I get help making something cool. I could just plant the turn signals in the 280z location imbedded or right behind the grill (so long as they can be seen when on, I don't care) I won't be using a front bumper, either. (sorry, I forgot to mention that) So I would want to eliminate that gap under the lights.

After 5 years of rolling around with this huge dent in the back, I finally brought it in for some body work. I had the shop build a custom roll pan for it, shaving everything off the lower rear. They filled the side bumper mounts with sheet metal, as well. I will have 'after' pics of it later today (no cable here for my camera) It's going to yellow epoxy primer right now, just to get things started. I will put the whole body together before painting the car. This is a budget build and I need the car to drive - so no time for ground up rotisserie and all that. I'm just going to make it presentable so I can drive a decent car around again. Up next, I think I will replace the driver side rocker panel and dog leg. The dog leg on the passenger side has to go, too. I know there's a few sources for these, but a link would be appreciated if someone can recommend a particular company. Following that, I need to replace my front end. My headlight buckets, fenders, hood, and grill were all backed into several times in 2005-2006. SUV's would back over it parallel parking, etc.. I never parallel park it anymore. I garage it every night. So I want to do a somewhat traditional Z nose on it, but I don't want the 240z turn signals out front. I would rather go to something like the 280z turn signals. I can't seem to find a spoiler that covers those up without looking like I'm trying to modernize the car too much. I don't want "bumper detail" like some MSA kits. I have scoured the internet and just can't seem to find anything that wasn't custom made. Should I just get a more common air dam and have the turn signal and bumper mount areas filled in? Also not sure if I should go with fiberglass fenders and headlight buckets, or just repair the stock ones. (or get steel reproductions) I want to eliminate as much weight as possible, and have a nice sharp appearance with good looking front air dam.

I was trying to contact you via email and pm here. I would be willing to let you cut it into pieces and mail it over to save on shipping. My friend can put it back together here. (if shipping is very expensive)

They look normal enough to me?

If there is no pressure in the intercooler piping, what load is placed on the turbine while shifting? What extra work is the exhaust doing to spin a freewheeling turbo? The throttle plate is closed, the BOV is open, the injectors are essentially off... there is no power being produced anyway. All this talk of reversion and scavenging means nothing when my foot isn't even on the gas pedal. The turbine slowing down a little when shifting doesn't hurt anything. At 7300rpm, my turbo was required to spin X RPM to maintain 1.6kg. At 5300 in the next gear, the turbo doesn't need to spin at X. It will be somewhat lower and maintain the required pressure, because the required flow is now less. If it were still spinning at that speed, it would spike the boost. The boost controller would run lower duty and bleed more pressure off to set the turbine spinning at the needed RPM. It's not like the turbine spins at one speed all the time.

I've grown a little older and a little more lazy when it comes to rolling a race car down the street. I'm trying to balance the two right now, and will eventually have to have a dedicated race car. As I build my current Z, I'm always taking basic comfort into consideration. When I built my 180sx in Japan, I went all out on most stuff. I got whatever was within my budget that would make me go as fast as possible. I wound up with an insane car that everyone loved, until they drove it. Then it was nothing but complaints about difficulty and discomfort. It was loud. It was a little rough. I managed to keep it from rattling through careful choices of bushings/mounts/etc... but there was no mistaking the noise that came from my diff, tranny, wastegate, exhaust. I had no AC, no power steering, etc... the list goes on as I traded comfort for speed. In the Z, I felt the stripped-down style that it came from the factory in suited the street/race car well. You don't have too many comforts to lose. As long as you keep a reasonable suspension and drivetrain, you can pull it off. When you get unreasonable, many people will find they grow tired of daily driving it. Sometimes I get in my wife's stock Miata with suspension and wheels and think this could be smoother if I left the suspension stock. Then I drive it... and its a lot of fun. Then I get in my Honda Civic. It's so smooth and easy going. I almost yawn and pass out at the first stop light. There has to be a balance, or you have to be willing to put up with whatever you put into your car. As said above, tolerance varies.

I got a complete set of inner lock mechanisms with the roller piece from Z-barn. They took good care of me. I did the lock cylinders and door handles a few years with help... and that was nightmare from what I recall. Now I'm getting brave and trying to pull all the rods and the roller. If I mess this up, the door won't shut anymore. Any links or advice would be very helpful.

I was driving recently with my lights on. I don't have the steering column cover on currently. I watched the solder on the headlight switch spark up and melt while I was driving. I quickly turned the lights off and replaced the switch on the stalk soon after.

You need to get a sticker or license plate frame that says sublime. Just make sure it doesn't look like the band's logo. Make lime in green. Ha that would be funny.

I disagree. I think it looks wicked. It rides the line between modern and vintage pretty nicely.

I like it, and I usually don't like green.

I like where this is going. It will look great with the bottom finished somehow. That prius lip is actually pretty cool. Hopefully you can score one from a front end wrecked car or something. As long as its wider than the Z, you can cut it in the middle and narrow it or cut it on both sides (might look like its supposed to be that way) If its too narrow, I can imagine how you would make it work. I'm pretty sure I'm still going smoothed out, but your thread inspires ideas. Good stuff.

Wicked! I can't believe you could do all that for $1500. I bet if you added up your labor, its a heck of a lot more than that. Nice work. Love the fabrication and innovations. As far as an oil catch can is concerned, you can just use another NOS Energy Drink bottle. It will work fine. Unless it can't pass tech inspection... I ran into that once at an HKS Drag Meet in Japan. They didn't like my 32oz Gatorade bottle oil catch can. I had a really nice one that fit the car, but then I put my Tec3 ignition in its place and it had to go. When you spend all week wiring and tuning, its hard to come up with a catch can in time for Sunday. Finished drinking a Gatorade, it went in. The tech guys eventually let me run because I put a ziptie on the bottle to hold the hose in it. Haha. I think they were curious to see my car run, too.

No, anything helps. Thanks for the tips.

I like where you're headed with these parts. Very cool. The front end is a little 'narrow' or something for my taste. It tucks in rather than sticking out a little. It appears to be pretty good for aerodynamics, but not big on the 'tough' factor. I'd be interested in your S30 version, if you ever get to it.

I've got numerous problems to figure out here. My door locks have been weird ever since someone broke into my car, damaged every single lock cylinder... tried to steal it, but the new ignition switch wasn't giving up. I was left with 2 broken door locks, a broken trunk lock, and a destroyed brand new ignition switch. So I had someone local replace everything with junkyard parts. I bought another brand new ignition because that was the biggest theft deterrent before. So here's my issues as they stand: Passenger Door: Locks and unlocks with a key or from the knob on the inside, but only if the door is shut. Once its open, its impossible to lock. This is annoying because you can't just push down the lock and shut the door. You must either use the key or go around to the driver side and reach over to lock it. Is this a factory design for some reason? This is the only Z I've owned, and its always been like this. Would be funny if thats just how it is. This is a minor annoyance, but not a security issue. Any advice appreciated. Driver door: This one has bigger problems. The shaft that the inner lock knob sits on is broken off at the end of the threads. It's not long enough to stick out of the hole, and therefore it flops around inside the door. With it leaning backward, the lock works from the outside if you turn the key while pulling the handle. The mechanism naturally rests back into the locking position as soon as you remove the key. Sort of an auto-locking door. The only way to unlock it from the inside is to have the door panel off the door, and I reach in and pull up on the lever. PITA. I need to replace the rod that the lock knob sits on. I was told by the guy who replaced the locks that the entire roller assembly that latches the doors is just worn out and needs replacing. Looking at it, I agree. Is there any source for new parts for any of this? I don't need the lock cylinders or door handles. I need everything else if I can get it. I'm afraid junkyard parts are going to lead to the same failures or possibly some new, more interesting failures in the future. So any new parts preferred. Any type of rebuilding is welcome. If I'm stuck reusing old parts... so be it.

Any time someone joins a forum and their first post is some insider information about a company... it's pretty obvious where they're coming from. Those fenders are a little expensive these days. I'd buy them if they were priced more reasonably. I'd like to replace my whole front end.

It looks great, but I'd forget about the aesthetics and tear a big hole in the hood to expose the whole intercooler core. Proper ventilation of the intercooler will give noticeable gains in performance.

Whoa! Holy old post! When I wrote my reply almost 5 years ago, the aftermarket support for CA's was getting bad. Now 5 years later, its worse. You had a CA from age 9? The work you mentioned is a complete rebuild and replacement of all the major components of the engine to make it into an SR killer. That's just what I said above. Are these motors still available? They're all 20 years old now.

I think I may have a free car to drive while I get this work done. Thats wicked. Nothing like daily driving and modifying your 34 year old car, ha?

Yeah, those guard rails can be pretty stationary, ha? Mine was hit by a chick rolling too fast through an intersection into stopped traffic. Ranger hit Accord, Accord hit Z.

Thanks, I will get in touch with the La Habra shop most likely in the next couple days. Thanks for the info!!