Bartman

Yeeeeeee-Haaaaawwwwwww!!! P.S. - It would really suck if you get yours running again before mine does.

I don't know what happened to Tim's drivetrain, but here's a picture of mine while it was still in the donor car;) Now if I can just change that purple to blue...

The more I think about it the more I think this is what I should do. I'm thinking just the relatively smooth inner fenders and shock towers. The firewall and radiator support area came out pretty good, it will be mostly covered, and there isn't enough flat area to work on.

I'm not looking forward to it, but I think it's the only way to get it to look right. Like Tim pointed out there are a lot of nooks, crevices, ripples, edges, undulations, etc; and its going the be a beeeache. But I'm hoping it will be worth the effort. I'm really concerned about not sanding through on the edges, so I want to be conservative on this project. Do you think starting with 1000 is safe? It is World Rally Blue Pearl, and I painted it myself in my garage. You can see some of the plastic I hung on all the walls, ceiling and floor. It was really close quarters in there, and it was a lot harder than I expected to move around with the paint gun. It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the results. The pearl in the paint is beautiful and it looked good after the basecoat, but the clearcoat really made the difference. It looks like it's wet even after it dried.

Okay I finally got ny engine bay painted! http://home.earthlink.net/~570z/images/paintedEngineBay.JPG I need advice on color sanding. I put on three coats of PPG Omni SV 2.1 Clear and it looks pretty good, but I'd like to have a smoother finish. What process would you recommend for color sanding the engine bay? Should I use 2000 grit or start with 1000 or 1200? I don't want to sand through the clear coat on the edges, so I want to be very careful.

I like the front vents, but those rear quarter openings can definitely go. Can someone explain the purpose of those anyway? Whatever the purpose is supposed to be, I think it would look much cleaner without them. My 1 cent (not enough to be worth 2 cents;) )

I think the point he was making is that "the smooth path of flow" is more important than the size of the pipe. The 45 degree difference in direction is more restrictive than the difference in the diameter of the pipe.

What's amazing to me is that in all this time SuperDan only has 405 posts while Tim240z has 6,336 and growing. Whose site is this again?

One more question - how much paint do you think it will take? You can see in the first picture how much area I will have to cover. I will want to cover it with three coats according to the information I have.

Hey Heavy Z, I'm really digging that hood. Do you make it or buy it, and is the hood scoop functional?

Thanks for all the great advice! The weather didn't cooperate, so I'm hoping for warmer weather soon so I can complete this phase of my project. Probably just as well, since I haven't finished final sanding of the primer. The engine compartment is much harder than the exterior. It's hard to prepare and sand all those joints and crevices. You also have to contend with the indentations from spot welds and some pretty close quarters. I'm looking forward to the exterior with nice smooth even contours. Anyway I'm continuing to work on getting the surface nice and smooth before painting the colorcoat and then the clearcoat. Here's a progress pic:

It looks like the weather is going to cooperate and I should be able to shoot color on my engine compartment this weekend. I will be shooting a two stage PPG base coat and clear coat. My question is when should I spray the clear coat? Should I let the base coat completely dry then sand it before spraying the clear coat? Or can I spray the clear coat directly over the color coat without sanding? If I can do it without sanding, what type of timeframe do I have to shoot the clear coat after the base coat has been shot? This is a picture of the area I will be painting.

Since I started this whole mess, I will try to clear up my statements. First of all, I posted my comments about MM because of this: My experience has shown that this statement is not true. You can not call Ross and he does not always respond to email (sometimes no reply at all, or it can take a week or more to get a response). This is not a recent issue, so it has nothing to do with computer trouble. I have purchased items from MM, but I have to make sure it is exactly what I need without being able to talk with someone on the phone. This has caused me to purchase some other items that I might have purchased from him, via other suppliers. For instance I purchased my coilovers from Arizona Z Car because I could talk with them on the phone about my specific needs. Yes his parts are top notch and he does seem to include everything you need, but what do you mean by top notch customer service? For me, you need a phone for top notch customer service. If you purchase from them you just need to understand the limitations with a pure web based business. Just my 2 cents.

Which brake kits are you comparing? Ross’s kit is for a vented Front Brake Package at $345. The MSA kit that would compare is the XL Four Piston Caliper Kit at $599.95 plus $72.74 for rotors. The difference is that Ross’s kit doesn’t include the calipers (I got remanufactured fully loaded calipers from eBay for $130 including shipping). The way I look at it Ross’s kit is a better deal, and that's why I bought it. BTW – I haven’t found a way to call Modern Motorsports. I don’t think he takes phone calls and he doesn’t always return emails. Although this goes against what most others will tell you, MSA has always been available to answer my phone calls whether I was purchasing something or just asking for advice.

Welcome to HybridZ Sheldon! As 240ZJake pointed out, information about this swap is readily available. I entered "Q45 and diff" into the search and several useful threads were returned that should provide you with the information you're looking for. P.S. - You'll find that there's been a great deal of discussion on whether the Q45 Diff is actually an R230 or not.

Thanks...I'm pretty sure it will fit nicely;) P.S. - Congratulations on your 1,000th Post!

Looks cool. It may just be me, but the lip looks a little out of round. Specifically the area closest to the door. Have you set in the wheel to see how it fits?

Cool, so 3/8" is the proper thickness? I've seen some of your progress posts on your car Zhadman, it's really nice. Some day I'd like to check it out. BTW - I'm going to be painting my car WRB, I love that color.

I finally got my engine bay primered last weekend and I hope to lay down the color coat this coming weekend. The question I have is about the three raised metal platforms on the upper part of the inner fenders. These seem to have had some sort of rubber cushion on them (whatever used to be there is crumbling away). What was it and what can I replace it with, or should I just leave them alone?

Wow, this thread went to Hell in a handbag. I value both perspectives that are being presented, and I think everyone could be a little more considerate. Everyone piled on to tell this guy to use the search function instead of just one polite note. The same questions don't need to be answered again and again, but we don't need to be a**holes about it. Maybe we could have given him some help of what words to enter into the search, or pasted in a link to a thread that had some useful information for him.