Chewievette

I always wondered what a fastback cobra would look like! It looks awesome, I hope my car looks half as good some day.

I'm looking for specs on the TB42 and Y40 crankshafts. center to center distances for all main bearings and crank throws, Bearing widths, etc... Everything I need to know for bolting it into an L series block. If I could find one of these cranks locally then I would just drag my spare L crank over and compare it, but nobody has one around here.

With the wheels being different side to side I never would have noticed it in the blister, I would have always thought all four were shallow. I'll keep my eyes peeled for another. Unlikely since imports dont sell too well around here, remember I had to order my 1/24th online. The show is called "How Its Made" on the discovery channel. I watch it every chance I get. From what I have seen all the companies they visit are in Canada.

Sounds good Eric, Cant wait to see them! btw, I noticed that this little Z has both the deep dish wheels on the passengers side and both the shallow rims on the drivers side. Took me a couple days to notice, but thought you might like to know.

Dont know what everyone else's excuse is, but I ran out of free info to get. My next step is to save up and buy one of these crankshafts since no one wants to let me look at one before I buy it.

I found this little gem while wandering around the local dept store. I didnt know Jada was making smaller Z's. Either way, my collection seems to be getting bigger! Dont you think this is a little optimistic?

Maybe if I had one..

I finally got bored enough today to get some pictures of the new collection. I'll go take them out of the boxes in a few minutes. I thought about leaving them sealed, but I'm not that kind of collector. I was waiting for the contest to be officially over before I posted this car. This is a hybrid that was made from the remains of the contest. This 442 ended up as an engineless hulk so with a couple mins of work I slapped the four banger from the Z in! I was shocked that it accutally looks decent, now I just need to find a replacement spoiler...

So close... its gonna be a bunny rabbit! Oh shoot, I gave it away... guess I'll have to come up with something else!

I am in for sure! Gotta defend my title dont cha know. I've already got plenty of ideas for the next car. This one is going to take a bit longer than my first one, so I would appreciate as much time as possible to work on it. My cars showed up the other day but I've been so friggin busy that they are still in the boxes! Gee, I've got nothing to do this morning...

Bring it on OTM! We need more contestants next time!! You have no idea how excited I am to get started.

I like to talk about my models, so you better go get a cup of coffee and settle in for a story… It’s finally over, the wait is done and as much as I tried I couldn’t help checking in and looking over the voting. I am really surprised that I won; the other models are absolutely Amazing! I would love to have any of them in my collection, but I'll settle for one. If you hadn’t guessed, my car is Ruby. It was a long grueling process to bring the car together, especially those last few days. There was paint and glue drying when I took those pictures! When I first got the car I had a hard time deciding what to do with it, so I went with my gut instinct and my passion for engines. The rest just fell into place. The basic engine was carved from a block of hard balsa and while not perfect, it looks pretty good. The hard part was getting it to sit just right. The carburetors are stolen from a '70 Olds 442 which also provided the spoiler. The intake plenum is made from brass and aluminum tubing and the rest of the piping was bent from heavy solder. It’s quite hard to tell once assembled but the piping represents a twin turbo engine, there is a Y pipe under the intake and I left the dual pipes underneath for effect. The battery is from a lancer evo, because I didn’t like the one that came with it. The ignition wires are plain old wire that I had lying around and the distributor is just a piece of tubing that fit snugly over the seven wires. The intercooler was formed using half of the original grill and made end tanks from more balsa. The interior is mostly stock, I repainted the steering wheel, shifter and some of the trim. If you look very closely, I painted a five speed shift pattern on the knob. The seats came from the same evo that donated the battery. The nitrous bottle came from either the evo or the 442, I don’t remember for sure right now. Underneath, I detail painted the chassis, and cut out the gas tank to make room for the diffuser, which is scratch built from sheet plastic. I also made the exhaust pipes that attach to the mufflers with solder. The wheels are the ones that came with the car but I shot clear red over the chrome lip to give it an anodized look, and repainted the centers flat black. The front brakes are pirated from the 442 and are actually bigger than the rear brakes. All four corners were re-clocked to mimic the Arizona Z car suspension setup. You will see a different set of wheels in a few pictures; I was considering them so the brakes would show more. But I didn’t like the tiny little side walls so they had to go. The body is a story in itself! First thing I did after I got it all apart was drop the whole thing in paint stripper. Unfortunately I forgot to remove the hood hold down and the washers in the door hinges so being plastic they broke down and it didn’t take much to break them. The door washers were easy but the hood keeper is a little more complex. I attempted to glue it back together but after my fourth attempt the plastic just kept breaking so I ditched it, and as you can tell, the hood is now removable. Then I moved on and used JB weld to fill in the rear bumper, rear view mirror, door handles, and spoiler holes. It works about the same as the metal so that wasn’t too difficult. I also shaved the corner lights, drip rails, and emblems. After the body work was completed I painted it in four stages, primer, silver base, clear red, and gloss clear. I buffed it up to a nice high shine and was very excited about it. Then I used some 3M low tack tape to mask off the rockers, air dam, and flares, and guess what …the paint peeled off! All the way down to the bare metal! So obviously I was ticked, this was days before the deadline and I had no idea what to do. So I took it in to class and grit blasted all the paint and primer off of it. The next time I used DuPont Automotive primer, it’s made for metal so it had better stick! Then I sprayed on the silver and red over that and ran out of time to put on the clear and polish it, hence the orange peel and crappy coating. I also noticed while taking the pictures that the blaster took off some of the JB weld and left little divots and distinct lines around the filler that are Very visible in certain light. So I need to redo the paint sooner or later. With decent paint finally in place and the black ground effects finally applied without incident I painted all the trim black and reinstalled all the lights and bumper, which was shaved smooth, btw. The car originally came with headlight covers which I didn’t really like and they didn’t fit well anyways so I did my best to make the lights look decent. Overall I think it turned out amazing, this is a model that I just couldn’t clearly see in my head until it was done, there are so many little things that I changed and little quirks about the model that I worked with. I am still totally in shock that I actually finished it, not up to my usual standards, but good enough to take pictures of it. Trust me, if you saw it in person, you probably wouldn’t have voted so highly. I really appreciate having such worthy competitors. You guys did an amazing job; I loved every one of the other models. Very big thanks goes to Eric and everyone that had a hand in making this possible, even thought the numbers weren’t as high as expected. I am already looking forward to the next contest and you can be sure I’ll enter! I already have a list of ideas; you just wait and see what’s coming next! I hope you like pics! I've taken over 200 of this car, this is just a small sample! If you havnt seen enough yet, there are a few more pictures if you follow this link! http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v11/chewievette/Models/JadaZ/ btw, are we allowed to start working on the next contest model?

Its a '79 they got all the lesser things, the higher speedometer almost makes up for it.

Is every ZX missing that upper windshield trim piece? My parts car never had one and one of the guys in the club had his blow off on the highway. Must need a little "help" to stay on. Looks like an excellent project! I wish mine looked that good when I started.

I am ordering a set of Stage 2 clutches from Raybestos, along with their overhaul kit. I have also decided to pickup a newer transmission so I can upgrade to the stronger components. I checked the chain using the method in the manual and they allow for 1" of deflection, mine has less than half that. I am trying to avoid buying new steels since they will double my rebuild cost, but if they need it then I'll gladly spend the extra money. I will wait on that until I get the other trans apart. I have been cross referencing between the ATSG (automatic transmission service group) manual and Factory service manual for this rebuild. Some things are still a bit sketchy but it seems pretty straight forward so far.

I recently had the auto trans in my daily driver go out so I pulled it and started a rebuild but I keep finding parts that look bad to me but so far I have not found anything that indicates a complete failure. When it broke I totally lost reverse and forward would drop out after a minute or so of driving it. I dont have any experience with automatic transmissions so I am hoping you guys can help me figure out the problem. At the moment I am seriously considering ditching this trans and rebuilding a lower mileage one, since I cant seem to find a distinct problem with mine. So if you have a few minutes, please take a look at my pictures and let me know if you see anything that would be causing me problems. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v11/chewievette/Cars/My%20Car/Transmission%20Rebuild/ btw, its a dodge a606 (42le) transmission

Do you need anything other than the pics for the submission? like a mods list or anything? Or where we got the parts from, esp the jada parts.

I'm putting color on the body tonight, after that primer snafu last week and my daily driver toasting the transmission, its been a long week. But dont worry, I will enter! I have a backup plan for the paint, if it peels again.

You do amazing things Paul! When I get to that step you can expect an order from me. Just seeing your work leaves me dumbfounded.

Thats exactly what I'm talking about. Like I said, I have no experience with that stuff so idk if its even possible but the idea just happened to cross my mind while reading this thread.

'72 240z, owned it for over a year and I'm still trying to piece it together. but I'm getting twards the end, end of the summer maybe...

If I can dig up a second head and find a way to ship them without bankrupting me I'll take Paul up on his offer. Not that I'm going to run out and build a diesel right now but having the head ready to go would be nice, especially if its going to take a while to get done. Besides, my car still needs a lot of work before I drop a high power engine in it.

Is it just me or does that diesel cam look a Lot like a gas cam? acctually, the whole valve train looks pretty darn close. Why do I get the feeling that if you drilled and tapped the injector holes for plugs and had some lower compression pistons you could use that head on a gas L series? I see absolutely NO advantage in doing that but the fact that it could be done is an interesting thought.

Thats all fine and dandy I was just trying to discover why people are obsessed with rpm and the associated Ka Boom of this engine after 5,000rpm. I dont understand, if the engine isnt designed to operate above 5K and it wont make any power above 5K Why would it need to be mentioned that it will die when you try to rev it that high? Your totally right, I've never looked at the ports on an LD before, I just know that both the intake and exhaust from a L could be made to fit which means they are close in port dimension. Plus they are both two valve and SOHC which means they should be similar. I did know its a cast iron head but what does that have to do with flow? either way, if you are correct about the sharp angle of the flow that would not be good, if its possible to smooth that out I'm sure it wouldnt hurt. Even if I was going to attept this project (not possible at this time) I wouldnt be after the power numbers of the new diesels just something reasonable for the street. I'm all about fun to drive odd ball stuff, this certainly would fit the bill. Maybe when I blow the engine thats in my car now and the one I'm starting to build up now ...it might be a while.

Well even if the engine physically weighs more it should still be able to make power. Obviously certain design features limit this, like head flow, but even gas L engines are getting 400hp, so the flow cant be too terrible. esp since a LD has basically the same head flow as a gas L. idk, maybe its my lack of knowledge about diesels but it just seems like there is no reason to limit the rpm that low, other than how deep your wallet is.