Bartman

I'm running ceramic coated Patriot block huggers on my LT1 with no clearance problems.

I was afraid of that.

I still have to essentially 'recreate' it on the rear quarter panels. The line is there behind the rear wheel openings, but not before it. If I extend the line from the door and the line from behind the wheel openings they don't line up. They aren't parallel and would cross each other above the rear wheel opening. So it appears that the body line arcs a little over the rear wheel opening and then is straight again going to the rear of the car. I just need to confirm this is correct.

No one can help me on my rear quarter body line question?

Sorry my car is so messy! If you want to see a specific shot or angle, just let me know. The problems are still not over. I wasn't unable to completely close my hood after installation of the kit, and for a long time I couldn't figure out why. I finally removed my fender and figured out that the shock was bottoming out before the hood could close! I got ahold of Jerry and was able to convince him he sent me the wrong shocks. He's told me he will be sending out the correct one's shortly.

I finally decided to go ahead and buy this kit: Gas Hood Schock Assembly Kit from Z Race Products and I have rather mixed opionions about it. First it took forever to received the shipment (ordered on June 20th, shipped on August 6th), but they seem very friendly and easy to work with. I can't find the post, but someone complained before about the documentation, and I would have to agree - but the kit itself seems to be of high quality. The templates provided didn't line up correctly on my install so I had to enlarge the opening to allow the strut to have room to go through the body. I made adjustments on the other side and that one works just fine. I'd like to hear from anyone else that has performed this install and see what their thoughts are.

I did a better search and actually found I started a thread about this same question years ago! How to Sharpen Body Lines In that thread Savage42 post a great image with the look I'd like to achieve My question is it appears that my body line from the rear wheel opening back slants down, is this normal?

I guess that would be the best route, but a little more work than I was hoping for.

thanks darl_db that's a good link. It's close to the process I'm already trying with a couple extra tips that should help out. I think the one thing that will really help right now is a long piece of flat stock steel or aluminum that will stay straight, but bend along the curve of the body.

I am once again in the process of doing bodywork and paint on my Z. I really want to increase the quality of the body including door and hatch gaps, panel alignment, and sharpening and aligning the body line on S30’s that start from the top of the front fenders and extend all the way to the rear of the car. I want this body line to be well defined, and straight – especially on the rear quarter panels where sometimes they seem to get lost. Can anyone share any tips or techniques of what has worked for them?

Overall I think it looks great! I hope you don't think I'm being to critical, but I think with a different offset you should be able to tuck your rear wheels up under those subtle Z rear fenders. It may not be the case, but it appears that the rear tires are still sticking out a little.

I was thinking of using JB weld to build up some area on the backside of the vents and then drill, tap and insert studs.

Any more insight on a fix for 280Z hood vent studs? I got one that I thought had all the studs intact, but a few came off after just a short time.

So here's what my passenger side door panel looks like right now. It isn't complete, this is just a proof of concept done with rattle cans. The panel did require quite a bit of work to fill in air bubble holes, but since this is made to be covered I think this is to be expected.

I don't know the current availability of these door panels, but I just got a set from a fellow HybridZ member. They appear to be of very high quality and fit pretty easily on my 73 240Z. One thing I didn't really realize was that you have to go with power windows with this upgrade, so now I'm buying the SPAL deluxe kit and switches. I'm planning on painting mine instead of covering them.

Just to be clear I think you're saying popper when you really mean solenoid. My kit came with a popper too, but that's a purely mechanical devie that helps physically open the door after the solenoid releases the latch. From your post I don't know if you've every installed on an S30, but you're very limited on space in the location you mentioned - especially with the window when it's down. The inside door handle opening when the door opens doesn't bother me and it would be pretty hard for anyone to see it unless they were inside the car when the door was opened with the remote. I don't know that I have the best solution, but I'm happy with it. Mine uses a rod instead of a cable and the amount of throw from the solenoid is pretty close to exactly the throw from the inside door handle. In addition the solenoid supplies an almost identical resistance to opening the door as the spring that was used on the inside door handle (I removed it after the install). That being said it would be great to see other solutions.

Did you cut for the compressor or just an A/C delete pulley? I'd like to see someone that was able to mount the compressor in the stock location to see how much framerail modification would be required.

Actually I was thinking of cleaning up my engine bay and trying to put a Sanden compressor in the old stock LT1 compressor location. Why are you saying not to cut the frame rail. Don't you think that it would be possible to do the job properly so that it would be as strong if not stronger than it is now?

I don't have a picture, but mine fit easily. If yours interferes with the frame maybe you do have a different pulley.

You need to put the a/c delete pulley back on. It will fit and I don't think you can route a belt without it or something similar in its place.

I didn't want to start a new thread, but I'm in the process of shaving my door handles now. I got the kit from Summit Racing VIA-80158-35DP and it seems to be a good quality kit. It comes with solenoids and poppers, but my doors open fine without the poppers so I probably won't use them. Here's a pic of my solenoid installation on the passenger side.