bjhines

I think there is more than one source for the Harbor Frieght USA tools. Or maybe the source is all China but some of their items come from higher quality chinese factories than others. It takes a good eye to spot the best deals on functional quality tools. I would assume that a Western manufacturer has set up a Factory in China to produce it's high quality brand for less. The Western company moves to another supplier somewhere else... but the Chinese Factory keeps cranking out the same tools with minimal exterior changes. Counterfieting? HFTools?... That might give you an idea of just how much markup there is on your favorite name brand tool. The really bad stuff is just that..really crude, really bad, virtually useless. I have to draw the line at the pliers that bend with a light grip, Sheetmetal cutters that bend out of alignment with minimal effort, screwdrivers that round off like they were made of plastic. I purchased one of their 8x12" metalworking lathes. I am no expert, but by all indications it is a useful piece of equipment for the $450 pricetag. I also have one of their drill presses, It needed a little smithing to get it right, but I did not have any issues with debris in the castings. I think quality control is the biggest hurdle for the distributors right now. There is so much frenzied growth that supplies and manufactured items are flying around at light speed over there. The stuff just falls out of a container on our shores. Then off it goes... straight to market... without a glance from a QC inspector. You gotta be your own QC system while shopping. If you don't like what you see right now... then come back in 3 months. I see a lot of stories from everyone that remind me of my own experiences at discount tool stores. I can remember seeing a lot of Indian and Pakastani items 15 years ago. It's all China now.

I am pretty sure that tack welding these edges back together is not gonna give much of the original strength back... The modern race car cages dont have very many bends in them. most of the tubes are straight. unfortunately most of the nifty car pictures cages are illeagal for the events I am running the car in. I am sure some exceptions could be made but the designs are not what SCCA wants to see.

That brings up another thought. For anyone who shaves the drip rail... That is exactly the part of the roof that is so well reinforced from the factory. That lip is a major part of the roof structure. Anyone who removes this edge without a roll cage installed is seriously compromizing the roof in a rollover accident. I think you could remove the lip and cap the roof edge to regain the strength. The cap would have to be 18-16g to do the job. That is no easy task to form a 3D cap piece(channel) that wraps around the upper and lower sheetmetal pieces, running the length of the A-pillar and roof..

I think John C. is right about the corners being the thickest areas. It appears that the original chassis design has a roofline tube made of multiple-boxed pieces of sheetmetal running up the A-pillar >>> along the side of the roof >>> and part way down the rear sail. The center roof sections across the front and across the back are not as thick or complex as the upper sides of the chassis. There is a MAJOR joint in the rear sails a few inches below the top corners. This area is filled with LEAD. There is another major joint at the base of the A-pillars. this joint is also filled with lead. The front joint is especially prone to rust and is a weak area on most 240Zs. There are several pieces of heavy guage metal that do not overlap. Some even have gaps as wide as 1/2", leaving only a thin section of metal joining 2 major sections of the car. This is 1960s rollover protection. The A-pillar and sides of the roof to just above the rear strut tower is a surpisingly ridgidly formed section of the car. The rear section is supported by steel uprights attached to the strut tower and inner wheel wells. The front section is attached to the strong firewall and cowl box. Unfortunately the front attachment is through a small "foot" of metal splayed out from the A-pillar base. The other problem comes from the fact that the rear sail is realatively flimsy between the strut tower and the taillight clip. The back edge of the roof is very ridgid. The joint between the rear sail and the back of the roof tends to pop or crack, it sometimes shows through the lead filler and quickly rusts away. I am reinforcing these areas as I gusset the cage. That is where a lot of consideration is needed.

Hehe.. I saw that POS. I could not get either rear wheel off of it. The lugs spun in both hubs. I didn't bring a cutting torch with me. That was one poorly put together race car. I thought it was a demolition derby reject.

I my particular installation the gussets are invisible from inside the car. In fact the exact position of the A-pillar tubes was carefully chosen to make them run inline with the factory pillars. They do not reduce visibility at all. I have a hoop in another car that creaks and squeaks under load. I can stick my finger near the interface between the roof and the hoop and feel a significant amount of side-to-side movement between the hoop and the roof. In fact I would not cram my finger in between them while the car is moving. It is liable to get pinched if I hit a large bump. I can still shift the hoop in relation to the roof with considerable effort by about 1/8" in the fully caged and partially gusseted race car. I can full well see the value of these gussets. In relation to the types of gussets used; there are several types employed in my car and in the example pictures. The punched strips are lightweight and have a great deal of strength in sheer. In fact, the Japanese 240Z has used them to encircle the roof. Assuming that the roof is stiff enough, that design will keep the upper cage tied to the roof in all the various ways it could move except up and down. I doubt that they will do much in a rollover which would compress them handily. They would however make it much harder to tear the roof off the car from above(for what it is worth). In this light they do not contribute much to safety, but they may do a lot for chassis stiffening. The tab type gussets are often made of heavy guage material(>18g). They are often tied to structures that are formed using 22g or lighter steel. That is a problem with using small tabs of metal for gussets. They overload small areas of the chassis and form highly stressed areas that are subject to fatigue and work hardening. The strip type gussets have a significant advantage in that they tie long running lengths of metal together to better withstand sheer forces. The tab gussets have their place in designs that use them to tie heavier guage(or multiple layered) sections of the chassis to the cage. The tab gussets are often performing double duty as chassis gusset tabs AND mounting points for other parts of the interior equipment. The other types of gussets are formed 3D gussets that are used to box certain areas(especially corners). These can take many forms. They are often bent using 16g medium thickness metal. They can also be formed using heavy guage material that is welded together to form a 3D piece. This particular gusset is formed with relatively light guage material. It looks like another tube runs down that path and is simply "boxed in" using curved flat plates. BUT it is actually nothing but sheet metal. there is only one A-pillar tube, the rest is nothing but a carfully formed piece of sheetmetal. ...

Some tires are wider in different places than others. In general the racing-use tires tend to be the widest at the tread of any type of tire. The RA1s are typical track tires, I have found that the Kumho Victoracers are a similar fit to the RA1s. The Hoosiers are even wider at the tread than the ToyoRA1s in the same 225/50/15 size. I also have offset lower control arm bushings that are set to raise roll center and provide TOE IN in the rear. They are not set to significantly increase track width in the rear. The upper strut mounts are also slotted to move the strut tops INWARD ~1/4". I have 1.8 degrees of negative camber in the rear without significantly increasing track width, BUT I have moved the position of the rear wheels slightly forward(by gaining toe in with the inboard pivots) which may affect the fender lip clearance in a way that causes more interference under full compression.

hehe... I try to stay away from the level-up oriented games. They are addicting because you constantly see a new goal everytime you log on. The FPS games are too limited... They put you in a shoebox with very limited flanking options for large groups of players. Even a large group is only a dozen or so players at once. I enjoy a game called WWII ONLINE. I have been playing fairly regularly(2-4 hours per week) since 2001. The game has been updated hundreds of times with a major new improvement in graphics, game play, and strategy every few months since release. There are only a few thousand subscribers and the playerbase tends to be older(30+years). I am a PvP gamer. I like to kill, not banter and roleplay. WWII ONLINE is probably the most aggressive PvP game online. You can be owned in a shootout or completely outwitted strategically. A player able to maintain an even 1 to 1 kill/death ratio is doing very well. Don't imagine yourself destroying dozens of enemies over and over again... It takes time to get into the action and death means you are out of that particular fight for some time. This game is Europe in half scale with Aircraft, Mobile armored units and plain old walking infantry. The entire game world is ONE ZONE using satellite GPS terrain. You can fly an aircraft across Europe if you don't get jumped and shot down along the way... There are literally THOUSANDS of players all duking it out on the same map. There are hundreds of different types of units. Each unit is modeled in exquisite detail. There are often several period correct versions of each vehicle with accuratly modelled armor( they even model the cast vs. the plate armor values differently so that some rounds are more effective than others. Every round is tracked as an individual object with DEAD ON ballistics and penetration values. Each round is tracked after it hits to see if it passes through and hits another object(vehicle system), or ricoches to a new object, or is stopped cold,.... or if it detonates, it is then tracked as dozens of smaller objects(shrapnel) with new mass and velocity values. Spalling on the backsides of armor plates are tracked as objects just like explosive shrapnel. Concussive force is also tracked as an area of effect with devastating damage to thin aircraft and trucks, and squishies(infantry). Many of the Anti Tank and Anti Air guns are shooting out to ranges of 5 kilometers. You literally never hear the one that kills you in this simulation.

The 200SX calipers were a set that I could not find in the JY. I could not mock this up so I am not sure which caliper bracket they used. The flat bracket puts the calipers at an angle. So the 200SX conversion might use the offset bracket.

I am trying to complete my cage install and send this thing off to paint. I am just looking at some pics of cars that have significant chassis gusseting and I am wondering the value of this treatment and where it pays off most. I have tried to be careful where I put the weight in my car. I am trying to keep weight off the front of the car and minimize the weight high in the car. I have already gusseted the A-pillars and the dash bar. I am considering roof gussets front and rear. The roof gussets concern me because I have a cage installed in another 240Z that squeaks due to it shifting against the roof trim panel under load. I want to maximize chassis stiffness but I dont want to add a lot of top heavy weight. Here is a pic of MY CAR with the front end gussets as it stands now. I am considering extending the front roof gusset all the way across instead of just the middle section. I am also considering doing the same thing to the rear hoop(center or all the way across). I have noticed that a lot of cars have A-pillar gussets but no roof gussets. I have seen cars with short tab type gussets instead of the punched sheet gussets that many use. I am providing some pics of gussets that I see in other builds. Some of these are Z cars and some are BMWs and others. Here are some pics of a really complex Japanese 240Z buildup. These guys gusseted BOTH SIDES of the A-pillar tubes to the chassis. They also did some amazing things with sheetmetal in other parts of the car. Here are some more examples of a Datsun with cage gussets.

When I say No rubbing... I mean no rubbing after rolling the lips. I have already rolled my rear lips as far as they will go without changing the outside appearance. This also assumes at least a 225mm tire width.

I need another set of wheels... My Enkis are in bad shape... But I still have some questions about fitment of the 16x8 sizes. I use 2 different sets of track wheels on my 240Z. 1. 15x7 /+4 offset Hyashi reverse mesh. I have mounted various tires but Toyo RA-1 225/50/15 most commonly. I had to roll the rear fender lips with these tires(all 225s). 2. 15x7 / zero offset Enki mesh wheels. I have run a variety of tires on these wheels as well. They are currently my rain set and have full tread RA1s on them. I use 225/50/15 on these as well. These also need the rear lips rolled. They interfere slightly more than the Hyashis(due to the Zero offset). I have MSA blue springs with Tokico blue inserts on uncut 1972 240Z struts. I have cut the coils slightly to cornerweight the car, but it did not significantly impact ride height. I am looking at the pics of cars with these wheels and then looking at my car... You guys say there is no rubbing, but it looks like these wheels will be unusable on a track driven vehicle. I really like these wheels. They look fantastic, but I wish someone could confirm that they actually allow full suspension compression to the bumpstops without rubbing.

I did not cut the roof off... You might be surprised how much you can get that Mig around the backsides of those tubes. I cut 1.5" holes above the areas that I needed access to. It worked out VERY WELL...

Media blasting is a great way to prep the car. Have them blast it and prime it with a good self etching primer or epoxy. Then you must get it home and proceed to pick all of the seam sealer out of the seams. Blasting will get you started. Primer is a must. Seam sealer picking is just as hard as it would have been to begin with. Wehn you are done then you get it primed again and contiue with paint.

I know a whole bunch of you guys were wondering about how I was going to fill in the rear wheel well openings where the hoop goes through them. Well I decided to use some sheet metal from my donor 240Z. I cut out enough material to reinforce the wheel well all the way from the inner weld seams to the joint between the inner and outer wheel well sections. I cut enough to clear the hoop and then I cut slices to allow seam welding in multiple places to the original sheet metal. Then I welded the piece in place inside and out. one side the other side ...

The cage is welded in place and most of the gusseting has been accomplished. It still lacks door bars as I wait on my custom seat to ensure proper fit when the bars are installed. This shows the overall layout of the cage design, as well as some of hte gusseting to the chassis. Details of the gusseting. A look at the roof bar. ...

I have been busy this winter but now that it is warming up I have been back in the shop making sparks. To pick up where we left off... The dash bar: This top view shows the form of the dash bar now that it is welded in place. This picture shows the upper gusseting that ties the dashbar into the wiper box. This picture shows some of the corner gussets that were used on the front half of the roll cage. This is the lower center dash bar gusset. I was planning on extending this reinforcement all the way to the firewall. I used a cracked dash I had from a previous rust bucket 1972 240Z as a mockup piece. I test fit the dash at all stages of this project. It has been a tough part of this project. The dash and center console along with the heater box and blower will all fit comfortably. The only modifications were to the corners of the dash where the A-pillars go through it. The center defrost diffusers will not fit, but there is an appealing way to make the defroster blow on the windshield. The end vents will not be functional but can be left installed to appear stock. The only other issue is the passenger side connector bundle. I will have to modify the glovebox liner to allow the connectors to be moved over a little. ...

The dash bar has been a challenge all the way. I had to cut up a spare dashboard to test fitment throughout the process. It fits without issues. I can use everything in the dash except the Defroster Diffusers(I can still get hot air on the windshield), and the side vents(I can use the left one for a guage and the other for whatever. The only other issue is that the Main Harness connectors are right where the A-pillar and dashbar join. They can be moved out of the way if I modify the glovebox inner. Here are some pics of the Dashbar. This last pic shows the underside center gusset. I am adding plates to continue down to the firewall. I can still fit the original airbox assembly. Remember I am putting this vvv back in the car.

Roof bars and such here... Main hoop configuration Side view front corner Halo bar Halo bar profile Hoop to roof clearance Hoop setback A-pillar gusset details

I had a local cage builder bend all my tubes, In fact I am taking the car back to him in the next week or so to bend my door bars. I have been waiting on my custom seat for WEEKS in order to mount it first. I distinctly remember him telling me that he could not put more than 2 bends in the A-Pillar bars for the design we have chosen. I didn't source this information myself. I also remember that many aspects the design came from a blend of different classes. We tried to incorporate the cage into the unibody to maximize chassis stiffness. We also tried to stay as light as possible. I originally thought I would use a halo roof bar that was a U-shaped piece literally halo'ing the roof. The A-pillars would have been shorter and straighter, but the design didn't seem to fit the interior of the car very well. I am tying my dash bar into the Torque box/Wiper tray of the unibody with 16g. steel. I'll get some pics up as soon as possible. I have also tied the A-pillar bars into the A-pillars. I am also considering doing this to the roof front and rear.

I actually went to the trouble to remove the plastic vent and tap the hole with a 1/4" NPT tap. It is aluminum and I used a shopvac with a micro cleaning attachment to clear swarf from the hole when I was turning the tap. It helps to remove the fill plug to allow the vac to pull air through the hole. I am not concerned with any small amount of aluminum that may have stayed inside the unit. I screwed in a hose nipple and ran the hose ~12" up and across the mustach bar. I attached a cheap metal fuel filter to the end of the hose to catch any drips. I had been loosing quite a bit of gear oil at every track event. This has completely stopped ANY oil from escaping the system.

I happen to have an example of EACH type of endcap. I do not know what years these came from, but they are different. The Shorter cap measures ~>5/8" tall. The Longer cap measures ~<1" tall. I mocked this up using Ross' CV welded CV adaptors and the Longer cap won't fit. I will have to modify it slightly to clear the stub nut. About the Parts diagram showing washers on the inside of the bearings(on the spacer). I just recently pulled all of the stubs and bearings out of ALL of my spare rear strut assemblies, including the current track 240Z for a bearing replacement. I have not seen ONE inner washer on any of my assemblies ranging in years from 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976. Some of them had Copper crush washers under the Nut... but never any washers on the inside.

The shims get crushed to death after a few years. Many auto-parts stores sell slightly different shims than the factory used. Get the Nissan Shim kit and all will be quiet. I dont use the shims at all to keep it simple on track. The brakes will squeal like hell without the factory anti squeal shims. I prefer NOT to use slotted+/drilled rotors on track. I would never spend the extra money on bling rotors for a street driven car. Slots and holes are primarily a bling factor thing. They look good if you have wheels to show them off. A rear disk conversion can be a great thing indeed. I would go for the Modern Motorsports rear disk kit. It is track tested and a significant improvement over stock drums in every way. One thing to consider is that the rear disk kit was intended to work with the front Vented disk conversion with the Toyota 4 piston calipers. You might consider doing both the front and rears as a set to ensure a balanced braking system. If you intend to only change the rear disks, then you might consider a different conversion that uses a smaller rear disk(like the 280ZX caliper and smaller disk kits).

Thanks guys... On car adjustable really does a lot more than what it says. I have set up several custom suspensions on BMW E30+36s, S-30 Datsuns, And recently a nicely set up Z-32. I have been using a Hunter Alignment machine. The thing I have noticed is that it often takes 1/8th to 1/4 turns of the adjuster to get the right setting. I can only make 1/2 turn adjustments on the outer LCA joints(lacking the extra ON-CAR adjuster parts). I can make up for the fine adjustment in other places. Removing the bolts or other parts is not very hard to do. The key is that an ON-CAR adjustable set up allows infinite adjustments to the parts. I would highly suggest making or buying ON_CAR adjustable LCAs if you have not added other parts in other areas that will allow fine adjustment.

Here ya go. Rear arms: Front arms: Steering arms: hehehe...