Bartman

Well I was able to do some testing today and I took pictures as well. For this test I just jacked up the front of the car and placed jack stands under the front of the floor pans. I used two jack stands on each side and put a small board between them to help distribute the load. The rear tires are still on the ground. The door gaps on the front had very little change, but there is a difference on the back side. The gap has the biggest change at the window frame. Pic Below is on the ground. Pic below is on jack stands: I can definitely feel a difference in opening and closing the doors, with it being easier with the car on the ground. Here are pic's of the rear door gap on jack stands: The one below is with the front on the ground You can see in the pic's that not only are the rear door gaps different, but the rear of the door is higher when the car is supported on the jacks.

I don't have my JTR book handy, but I recall it being really helpful on letting you know what wires you need to keep and what wires you need to get rid of.

Just in case anyone is interested, here's a picture of my Speedhut El Glo gauge faces (I still need to get a dash cap and ditch the mat). I tried to get mine to look as close to the AutoMeter Speedo and Tach as possible. Of course, they don't look the same when they're lit, but I'm still happy with it. I painted the needles flourescent orange during the installation, but I think any color would show up on my gauge faces. 2003z , the reverse El Glo looks nice!

I'm Bart from Corona and I'm a Z-aholic. I'm generally pretty busy..with my car as well as other miscellaneous crud...but when I'm able to, I enjoy going to Z related events. I'll be athe ZCCIV show this month, but of course my car still isn't done.

So I think I'd like to put my car up on jackstands to try and reverse sag the car and see what this does to the operation of my doors as well as any changes in the door gaps. I'll take pictures on and off the jackstands and post them up on this thread. What would be the best position to place the jacks for this experiment? Under the TC rod buckets and front diff mounts like Ken did or somewhere else? I'll try to perform this test sometime this weekend.

Ken, the way you installed your rails sounds very similar to what was shown in the MuscleCar edisode I watched. When you completed your installation did the new frame rails hold the chassis in the "reverse sagged" position or perhaps somewhere inbetween where it was previously and how it sat on the jackstands? Did you notice any difference in your door gaps and/or how your doors opened and closed once the rails were installed?

Hey Ken, I don't know that I've actually seen pictures of your car before; but it looks great in the video. It looks like you were really laying down a good fast run there. I would really like to get my car on the dyno and see what I've got, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. It looks like autocrossing would be fun to do as well, I think I'm going to try that in the near future as well.

Yes I guess they are bent at the front ends, but I'm referring to the main run with the flanges that run along the bottom of the floor pan. This part is flat and the floor pan that it connects to needs to be flat as well.

I didn't really expect this testing to have any value for me, but I was really wrong on that one. Just this preliminary information seems to provide an explanation for the problems I'm having in keeping my car running cool while at speed. It appears that having my radiator leaned back is probably making it even harder for air to pass through and therefore the air is going underneath my car instead of through the radiator. Ever since I put in a thicker radiator the problem is worse, and now it makes sense. I'm definitely going to spend some time sealing my radiator. My thanks to everyone that made this testing possible, it sounds like there will be tons of useful information because of it.

Problems with the door gaps may well be due to worn hinges or poor alignment, but if installing the rails can have any affect on door alignment whatsoever it seems to make sense to me to not mess with anything until after they are installed. If I tried to make adjustments for door gaps first, then I would probably need to do it again after the rails are installed. The 240Z frame rails aren't bent either, but it seems that the floor pan could be. If the floor pan is straight, then the Bad Dog Rails should fit easily. I'm assuming that my floor plan isn't straight and trying to determine the best way to resolve this issue.

So I sent an email to John at Bad Dog and here's the reply I got: "As to the sagging issue, the rails will help but you'd need to get the floor level first. I'd use 1-3 sheets of plywood, some 2X4s and a few jacks to get it back into shape. I would also look into adding some structural support inside (from the rockers to the tunnel). Make sure these don't interfere with the seat brackets." So I think the time to install the rails would be before I finish the paint and body work since it sounds like some adjusting will be needed to install them properly. I'm going to order them soon and take lots of before and after pic's especially of the door gaps. I'll play around with using the weight of the engine to help level the floor as well as working with additional jack stands, plywood and 2x4's as necessary. It sounds like I may need to install additional structural support between the rockers and the tunnel as well. Sounds like this will be another fun project.

I have a 73 as well, and I installed European bumpers for 72 and earlier models on my car (they don't have provisions for the rubber strip on them). The answer to your question is the bumpers themselves are different as well. Not sure of all the differences, but first off the ends of the bumper would sit too far back.

Yes, that sounds like the show and episode I was referring to. The top of my doors seems to have closer gaps than the bottom, so I was thinking that a little body sag could be the culprit here. The place I really notice it is just below the window on the rear of the doors...the part thats almost horizontal just above the body line. I can take a picture if it helps. Maybe I should go ahead and buy the Bad Dog Rails and trial fit them to see if I have sagging or not. Auxilary posted that his body was arced and that his car was dropped on the Bad Dog Rails to make the rails arc (I'm assuming the arcing he's referring to is the same thing that I'm calling sag). If my car does have some sag can the Bad Dog Rails be somehow installed in such a way to remove it, like in the MuscleCar episode, or would I be asking too much from them?

Okay, so it sounds like if I do some sheetmetal practice I should be ready to tackle this job. I wasn't intending to bend the SFC's to meet the floor...but I am thinking of doing the exact opposite and bending the car to match the SFC's (at least to some extent). This of course is assuming that there is some sagging in the car to start with. Now if I do the welding myself it may not make any sense to install the screws first, because by using the jack stands on the SFC's the engine weight could theoretically remove the sag from the car and allow the Bad Dog Rails to sit flat against the floor.

So I'm pretty sure I want to install Bad Dog Frame Rails on my car, but I have a couple of questions. First, when would be the best time to install them? Initially I was thinking about doing this after the body work and paint has been completed, but now I'm thinking I should install the Bad Dog rails first. I was watching a car show on TV and they talked about sagging that can happen on unibody cars, and they claim that most 30 something year old cars will have sagging that can be fixed by installing SFCs. They jacked the car up put jackstands under the frame rails to let the weight of the engine remove the sag from the chassis. Afterwards the door gaps were changed and they claim the doors closed better as well. I'm trying to achieve somewhat uniform door gaps, so if the SFC installation can affect them it would make sense to install them first. My next question is regarding the actual installion. I have a welder with gas, but I don't have much experience welding. Is this something a novice should attempt to do, or would it make more sense to take it to a professional welder? I could at least prep everything and possibly even bolt them in place (like what jmortensen did with his), and then take them to a professeional welder. Of course if there's anyone in the SoCal that has welding skills and can help me out, that would be great!

Glad to hear your back up and running Hanns! I'd still love to be able to make it out to the track when you're running your car. Just let me know the next time you take her out and I'll be there.

This question should be moved somewhere else as it has nothing to do with a Chevy V8. In regards to your question, I doubt the lettering is any font that you would be able to find. Usually the lettering on car emblems are one off letters made specifically just for the emblem. Sometimes people will take those letters and design the letters that aren't included in the emblem to create a new font...but I doubt anyone has done that for our cars.

Oops I accidently posted for MSA not ModernMotorsports. Ross doesn't publish his phone number as it is his at home side business. Sometimes it takes a while for him to get back to you, but he will eventually.

Here I am in Holland for a couple of days now...and I'm still posting on HybridZ. There are pleny of beautiful girls here...including one's in skirts on bicycles. Starting tomorrow I will be riding a bicycle around the country as well.

I'm still planning on going this route, and everyone will probably have something to say...hopefully some of it will be positive. I've actually blended in some fender vents now that will help carry the Mako Shark theme. I was hoping to have it painted by now, but the body work is taking me some time to do and I don't want to rush it. In the picture I posted I started with someone else's car and photoshopped my wheels on it and drew on the side and rear skirts, here's a pic of how my car looks now: The fender vents don't show up too well in the picture, but you can probably get the idea. The bumpers will stay chrome, and I think the fade will stay below them. I do want the silver fade to make it up to at least the bottom part of the "gills" though. I hope I'm not rambling...I'm on vacation in Holland right now and I still have jet lag so I'm up early posting on HybridZ!