bjhines

I stitched the entire chassis of my project car. I am pretty sure that the most time consuming part of fabricating the entire car was the seam welding. I used a good quality set of dental picks to pull the seam sealer out of the seams in relatively large chunks. I used a flat bladed screwdriver to loosen up some of the seams to allow the sealer to pop out cleanly. There are some tricks to getting it loose by prying the seams, but you will figure it out. It only takes a TINY amount of prying... don't buckle the panels or pucker the seams. There were quite a few places that the sealer could be pushed out the back of the seam instead of pulling it out. I used a MIG with standard mixed gas and .035 steel wire. I ran the voltage on the second to lowest setting and played with the feed rate until I would lay down a nice bead. I stitched BOTH SIDES of any panels I could get to. I used a combination of stitch patterns... I used 2" long stitches on multi layered metal and thicker strutural areas. I used tightly spaced SPOTS on the thin metal and areas prone to warping. Someone told me not to run a continuous bead because the metal can work harden and crack all the way down the seam.

Hmmm... The idea of inserting your cartridge and threading the gland nut on exactly the way you want it and tack welding the tubes back together is sure to work every time. I used a couple of clamps to hold the edges flush together and then I tacked in between the clamps. Pull out the cartridge and weld em up. If you penetrate too far inside the tube then... It is possible to buy an extension and mount a carbide burr to reach far enough inside the tube. You can cut a piece of wood to act as a fulcrum to apply pressure to the burr where it is needed. The wooden fulcrum will also keep the burr from running around inside the tube like a racetrack.

My attitude is more about awareness and common sense and courtesy. I really don't want to harp on car control skills. I value them highly, But I don't think a 400HP track car has any relevance to daily driving skills and awareness. Awareness of the universe around you and awareness of the RULES! are what matter. Car control is important but should not be the focus of a driving program. I instruct at HPDE schools regularly, and I see more value in awareness than actual handling skills. People who lack handling skills can see improvements in lap times by increasing their awareness of what they are doing. At no point do they HAVE to be able to recover from a loss of control. The goal of HPDE instruction is to make drivers consistent and aware of what they are doing WITHOUT getting into a slip situation. If you want to learn about slip angles and recovery then do it on a soaped down SKIDPAD FIRST.

Savageskaterkid has brought up a great point about how they do it in Germany. That sounds like it would be a great first step here in the US.

These data aquisition systems are popular in hobby racing. Many of these systems are less than $1000. Data Aq. is a wonderful way to enforce the laws with ZERO tolerance and absolutely consistant application of the laws. Make it mandatory for high risk drivers and it will keep them in line with NO tolerance for mistakes in judgement or awareness.

I don't like big brother in my mess, Dont get me wrong. I am not a commie. BUT! I think the MAJORITY of drivers need a tight knot jerked in them. Driving is more dangerous than ever with ever increasing amounts of traffic. I have absolutely ZERO tolerance for the majority of bad attitudes and sense of entitlement drivers have these days.

I agree that imposing more age limits on the driving age will cause trouble for young and old. TwoeightythreeZ has a good point about making certain age groups re-certify their driving abilities every year. That would keep people serious about good driving and thinking about the fact that they drive under a low tolerance provision. That way people who MUST drive have the opportunity while those who abuse their privelages will have to walk. There is a serious problem with the attitude of people on the roads. They are completely unaware of ANYTHING going on around them. They seriously don't care. I think younger and older drivers should have a camera mounted in the cockpit that monitors their every move. If they so much as take their hands off the wheel to pick their nose... points are scored against their driving privelage. Change lanes without turning your head to look scores more points against you, Failure to signal, late braking, failing to look in the rear view every 30 seconds, deviations of more than 5MPH from the speed limit, monitoring of eye movements showing lack of awareness or sleep, traveling in the passing lane, and a thousand other violations of common sense driving. You could also limit the times of day that people drive, You could also limit access to certain roads during busy times. Make the provisional drivers pay for the monitoring equipment. Mass production of these systems and their monitoring programs could get the price down to <$1000. These people are increasing ALL of our insurance rates. They should foot the bill for their own monitoring. Even a lack of defensive driving should count against these provisional drivers. Any accident even if it is not their fault should count heavily against them.

I must say that the Mid 1990s Nissan rear brakes are overly complex and require an experienced mechanic to properly service them. There are 10 ways to sundown to totally 4uck up these rear brake systems. You should not mess around with these calipers if you don't consider yourself an EXPERT chassis mechanic. I think highly of myself and my mechanical abilities and I got the pads seated wrong the first time out on track. I was at least bright enough to figure it out and come back into the pits for a thorough brake check. I went the extra step and completely rebuilt my set of late model 1996 240SX calipers. Those things are NO JOKE. No wonder they charge well over one hundred $$$ for each rebuilt bare caliper. I did mine for a grand total of $25 seal kit and a bunch of wasted time chasing down the Snap-On truck for long-reach-inside-snap-ring pliers. Those damn things are like working on a clock for God's sake.

I am so sorry to read this. Damn idiot kids. Yes they are all still children at 22 years. I am willing to vote for ANYONE who will raise the driving age to at least 21. I also believe that ALL drivers should go through a mandatory car handling course on a skidpad and at speed. People of all ages should be forced to go through an intensive course that details moving with traffic, how to merge and exit on freeways, as well as general awareness of traffic around you. I was trailering my 240Z back from Road Atlanta this weekend and passed scores of idiots. One minivan full of people with an older lady driving almost lost their lives trying to merge into 80MPH traffic at ~40MPH. I was unable to move over to avoid them and all I could do was to lay on the horn and flash my lights and slam on my brakes as that idiot lady tried to mege with 40MPH closing speeds. She has NO RIGHT to a license and I would have enjoyed bitch slapping her for endagering my life.

If you have swapped the outer pads for the inner pads you will have this condition of uneven pad wear. You say that the right outer pad is wearing funny. There are 3 pins on the inner pads with only one pin on the outer pads. The extra pins interfere when placed on the outside. You got both outside pads installed on the left side caliper, you have both inside pads installed on the right side caliper. The only single pad that would cause a problem is the outer right pad in your case. In other words, having too many pins on the outside will interfere, but having too few pins on the INSIDE will not. There are 2 slightly different pads for each caliper. The outer and inner pads have different numbers of alignmet pins. In fact, the pins are there to: 1. Peen on the little retention tabs, 2. peen on the wear indicators, 3. they locate the anti squeal shims, 4. keep the piston from rotating when the parking brake is set. IF the inside pad will not seat correctly then... The Piston might not be clocked correctly to ensure that the pins on the back of the pads are seated in the slots(in the piston). You need to goto your parts store and purchase the universal piston turning tool.(and pull the handbrake and press the pedal together while relasing only the handbrake several times to adjust the handbrake initially) I ran into the same problem on the race track, The car pulled slightly to one side. I checked everything out and found the piston had rotated slightly before it seated onto the pad. It was pressing on a pin on the back of the pad instead of the entire back surface of the pad. It was easy to diagnose and fix. PS: If you ever read the owners manual for the Nissan 240SX you will find that the procedure for SETTING the parking brake involves pressing the pedal firmly and then pulling the handbrake. That ensures that forces on the handbrake cables are low and it is neccessary to ensure that the HELICAL PIN inside the caliper will self adjust evenly and reliably, without turning the piston(even without the locator pins on the pads).

ok.. the results are in. This conversion works!... but it was a real headache... There are literally dozens of modifications that must be made for these parts to work effectively. Another note is that the small piston 240SX calipers will provide proper brake bias when combined with the vented 300ZX front disks and the largest of the 4 piston Toyota calipers. I feel that the larger piston Maxima calipers may have too much rear bias. I used the 240SX calipers. 1986 Maxima flat brackets opening up the inner hole I can't find my pics of the completed milled brackets Here is a pic of the un-milled rear brackets mounted on the spindle. You must remove 0.195" of material from opposite sides of the bracket to allow room for the hangar between the bracket and the disk. Here is the caliper mounted with additional spacers mounted between the hangar and the caliper pin-ears. These spacers are neccessary when using the 240SX caliper with the 1986 Maxima Hangars. I use Hawk blue pads on the front and Hawk black compound on the rears. This worked very well at Road Atlanta this past weekend. front to rear bias is PERFECT! Here are some pics showing the blueing of the rotors. This shows that they are doing their fair share of the work. I would never do this unless you own a machine shop. Ross's conversion does all of this with minimal hassle. The Modern Motorsports kit is well thought out and WELL WORTH THE MONEY!!! KUDOS to Ross for really thinking this through. His kit is the best combination of parts with perfect rear bias when combined with the vented 300ZX front rotors and Toyota calipers. ....

I have to second Teekass on that. My limited experience with both Airplanes and an EGT I have used to setup my triple Webers shows that you can peak EGT and then find that it will read lower than peak if either too lean or too rich. I also run multiple O2 sensors for A/F ratio monitoring. The off-peak EGT correlates well with too rich/too lean A/F readings. When timing is seriously retarded the EGT will suddenly JUMP to far higher than normal EGT readings. I don't doubt that there are some siuations that can cause the headers to glow besides retarded timing.

That is some pretty nice work. Did the interior get burned in the process? I recall the tough decisions around my roll cage design, there are soo many variations of the rules depending on what you are doing. With that said, there are certain features that are just too good to pass up. I think most organizations speak of some type of diagonal in the main hoop. It has been pretty well established that this bar is an important part of cage designs. Some people add the diagonal as literally part of the main hoop. I think the tube has to be an un-cut tube all the way from the drivers head to the passenger floor. It looks like your horizontal seat-belt tube is in the way. There is a way around this problem. I have seen many cages with the rear diagonal running from the drivers head to the passenger strut tower. Actually all of these seem to be Xs rather than one diagonal. Those tubes might be fairly easy to add without any extra work. ...

Yes WE ARE!!!!! I have pushed all other things aside to get this thing going and ready before the end of the month. I'll get with everyone after this weekend.

I went online shopping after I was quoted $56 EACH rear 300ZX rotor from autozone(Beck Arnely). I found the BREMBO REAR 300ZX rotors for $22 EACH and $5.50 shipping. I got them via UPS in 4 days. The wait was going to be 3 days for Autozone to get them in. I have priced a lot of things from local auto parts stores. They are stupid high on their prices. Some are even higher than Factory Nissan stuff. I cannot find any reason to visit a local car parts store. You would think OIL might be something you should pick up locally. Hell NO! I can order my motor oil and have it shipped for less than the auto parts store prices. Wal-Mart is the only affordable place I buy oil locally(Mobile1).

The real question for me now is LAYBACK angle..

WOW... THose are high $$$ seats... I may purchase one in the future... but I am not spending $600 on ONE seat for now... I am just moving up from Forza and swingback Recaros...

Does anyone have any experience with the Sparco Ultra fiberglass seat..??

JM... What is your belt size.. and what size is your seat...

I have been pondering the choices in seats... I am at a point that I must have the actual seats I will use in order to finalize the mounting points and seat back brace... I am looking at 2 very different seats... one is a fiberglass shell with only one size and the other is an aluminum race seat with a wide variety of sizes to choose from... The Fiberglass seat I am looking into is the Sparco Ultra http://www.discoveryparts.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?cart_id=1172544050.182&product=seats_sparco&pid=360 The Aluminum Seat is the Ultra Shield, Rally Sport seat... http://www.discoveryparts.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?cart_id=1172544050.182&product=seats_ultrashield&pid=816 The Sparco fiberglass seat has no size options... It is what it is.... The aluminum race seat is offered in 14-18" sizes and the back angle can be 10-20*(degrees).... This is where I have some questions... My belt size is 32"... My butt is 15" wide sitting down(loose fit with wheel calipers)... I am used to My Adjustable Recaro and my non adjustable Corbeau seat... I have found that the angle of the Corbeau Forza is advertized as 78*... I can assume that is a 12* layback... I always feel like the Forza needs more layback... I always remove the bottom seat pad when I wear a helmet to gain some roof clearance... This makes the thigh bolsters too tall to allow for any more rearward angle by using washers under the front mounts... therefore a little more backrest angle built into the seat might be the ticket... but hte seat bottom of the aluminum racing seat wont have the problems that arise when I remove the bottom pad...

Skiing, Biking, or any mode of transport that gets you to stop using your feet in a walking manner all use the same skill sets... Driving is no different... just a lot faster and harder to judge speeds and distances... and the inconvenient fact that cars have to stay on the very limited road surface to maintain traction... The skills developed for turning in, the fastest line through a turn, apexing, and tracking out are all a regular part of any type of transport that does not use a walking type of locomotion...

Is the bowl vent tube clogged?

It is a cumulative thing... There are dozens of little things you can do to get what you need as far as alignment... There are quite a few things that can cause problems if all the adjustment is made at one point.... You get a little adjustment here and a little there with the big picture in mind at all times....

Hmmm... I have pondered this endlessly... I chose a WCT5 for my track monster... T5/WCT5 have been the choice in the past... but they are becomming hard to find... especially in good condition... though rebuilding them seems relatively cheap and easy to do... $250-$300 kit... The WC-T5 has some advantages that make it more suitable to ROAD RACE use... The geartrain has a lot more bearings than the regular T5.. so heat should not build up as quickly in the WC unit... The regular and WC-T5 are the lightest transmissions on the list for V-8 hybrid Z-cars... approx 75lbs... As far as the G-Force gearsets go.. That will triple the price of the tranny and put you right into the same $$$ range as the Brand NEW Tremec units... The same seems to go for ratio changes... Any change in the 1-4 gear ratios puts you into an entirely new gearset... The money gets wild as you try to further modify the tranny... although 5th gear can be changed without a lot of parts(it will require machine work on the housings) If you try to use a Mustang T5 you will need to swap input shafts with a chevy unit... Your driveshaft will need to come from a Stang as well... There may be other issues like shifter location, sourcing a bellhousing, clutch kit, etc... In the end... The Camaro/TransAm WC-T5 is very light and will hold up to road-race type use... but it has a bad rap with the drag racing crew... The Tremec units can be purchased new with your choice of ratios for similar cost to rebuild and modify a WC-T5... The Tremec has some key advantages over the design of the T5... Why not buy a brand new Tremec??? ..... ....Unless you just happen to get lucky with a cheap WC-T5 like I did... Sometimes buying a car for one part is cheaper than buying one part from the JY... plus Ebay allows some money to be made up... plus you get ALL THE PARTS... and the scrap steel value is close to $100... a sawzall makes quick work of the carcass..

Is that SCCA...??? I am heading to Road Atlanta in the middle of March.. So I am conserving tires and Wife Points...