bjhines

They might not even be 6lbs... They are "chopper gun" fiberglass panels... not the preferred lay up parts.... although the chopper gun parts tend to use a little less material in most cases since they are sold as cheaper production parts... I have MSA ZG flares and MSA type III side skirts that are layed up parts.. they are considerably denser than the fenders... though they are not the same size so it is hard to compare...

JM.... the fenders are REALLY LIGHT... half the weight of the metal fenders... and they are fairly easy to work with.. I would much rather work with glass than metal any day... and I have worked a lot of metal on this car already...

Type III side skirts... Trial fit.... These things require a fair amount of cutting and fitting in order to work properly with clearance... The front part was easy... The rear edge was not so easy... I finally ended up cuting away the dogleg section... some cars may not have a problem fitting this without cutting... but mine needed more clearance in order to get the bottom door edge gap straight and still not have the rear edge of the door hitting the skirt... attached to the rocker lip with stainless screws... the pan heads work fine.. but I have ordereed some truss head screws that are even lower profile and have a washer type head to spread loads... this is not finnished... I am adding some aluminum angle to flatten out the bottom lip and allow a hard point for mounting braces to the floorpan... I'll get pics soon...

I have a lot of fiberglass replacement panels... I got these fenders second hand through E-bay.... they are not the nicest things ever made... but I am going to make them work for me... The first problem is that the mounting tabs molded intot hem are just WRONG... they are warped and wayyy to tall.... I had to cut them off and make a new angled bracket out of aluminum and bond it on... I had to do the same thing to the bottom mounting lips... WAYYY OFFF... .... more to come...

Hey... just a thought.. I had a tach go bad in a 72 240Z... caused a similar problem... there just are not as many other possible things to go wrong in the 240Z... The ignition systems are not even close to being the same...

Milodon pump, the cooler is small and will be mounted under the car near the differential... I have not actually decided where exactly it will go...

Yes... the bell housing is tilted..... It is from an 88 Camaro... Is that the way to go? should I source a Corvette bellhousing?

I and several other Datsun racers have had the same problem.... I have an open R180 that needs a catch tank because it is brand new and gets hot enough to spew oil out of the vent... actually the vent fell off last event... That is with Redline blue pasty stuff... I have a Nismo 3.54 CLSD R-200 I have modified to run a cooler... for the V-8 project.. ...

Whew... I swear I have heard that these things can be had for as little as $400.... MY ASS!!! In North Carolina... I only found 3... One yard did not want to verify the tag info before I drove 2 hours to get it... Another yard had one on the shelf... $750 no bellhousing or anything... The yard I got it from wanted $850 for everything on a running but recently wrecked car... Car didn't look bad.. clean inside.. the Counter man said he would verify that it shifted properly... and offered a warranty for 30 days.... I said I'll take it... I picked it up and it was ready to go with all fasteners in bags... $900 with tax... I must say the thing is light... I have never held a WCT5 before today... It looks flimsy but I will be careful with it... I figure I will dismantle it this weekend and verify it can be easily rebuilt... If not I will reassemble it and return it cleaner than it was when I picked it up... Pics... Tranny... WC T5 from a 1988 camaro 5.0L TBI Bellhousing is in good condition.. I cleaned it up to verify... Flywheel looks like it was run hard and put up wet... then some grease monkey slapped a new clutch on the damaged flywheel and said $$$chin $$$ching... It is a lightweight 153 Tooth version... nice to have all the matching parts for the lightweight set up... Got all the trimmings... Driveshaft... It is steel...I thought they were supposed to be aluminum.. or is that only on the Automatic... ...

$900 from a JY an hour from my house...It came out of a 1988 Camaro 5.0L TBI... these things are as rare as hen's teeth... Tranny, Bell housing, slave cylinder, flywheel, Pplate, clutch, driveshaft, shifter, and all the bolts and cover plate.... It dry shifts and they ran the car on the lift and tested that the tranny shifted all gears... It seems a little loose but the car had 156,000 miles and it looks like the tranny has been worked on in the past... I figured on rebuilding it before I slap it in my ZZ4 powered 240Z...

My 2 year old likes to paint and draw... and she is always very exited to be out with me working on it...

OK... the HybridZ albums are WAY TOO SSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW to post pictures... much less video... gimme a break.... USE A REAL PHOTO/VIDEO upload site.... forget the damn HybridZ excuse for hiding things from ever being viewed... Another thing... I would love to see what people have in their Albums/Garage on this site... but clicking on a profile doe NOT offer alink to their Album... this is rediculous... HybridZ Albums are NON-FUNCTIONAL unless you are desperate and willing to spend all day waiting for it to load each pic.

ahh... yes... you are absolutely right... it is hard to keep perspective... it is a cavity not a wing... I was thinking in entirely the wrong perspective... One problem with top vents on the S-30 cars is that the tops of the fenders are not really "open"... the upper support of the chassis sticks out almost ot the outside edge of the fender... another candidate for the extended fender idea....

These fender vents look really cool from the outside... they are very appealing.... but they have a VERY SMALL opening inside for air to escape... they do not appear to be very functional... perhaps the front inside edge couls be removed to allow more air to escape without visibly changing the appearance... The Ferrari 550 has some great looking vents that are both retro and large enough to be functional... I would love to see some pics of the inner fender to see what they have doen to direct air towards the openings... I think they are louvered inside as well... but I cannot find any good pics... ...

The problems I can see are in the overall complexity of the inner fender bodywork needed to direct air towards the gill openings... The top vents would be relatively easy... A proper set of gill vents would be easier to design with a widened front fender that simply left a tall vertical opening at the entire back edge of the fender... ie... getting rid of the side gill vents altogether and simply allowing a widened fender with a normally spaced door to leave a large vetical opening that would allow any and all air inside the front fender to escape...

280Zone... I think your vents look great... but they do not allow much air through... Lets say we put 2 large vertical slots(openings) in the sides for air to escape.... air from all around the inside area can get to the openings... the air flows out in turbulently due to the fact that air comes toward the openings from all angles and exits the holes in the flat openings... A slightly better version would include louvers to smooth the airflow exiting the openings... the louvers would be oriented to act almost as scoops to catch air comming from the front and scoop it toward the openings... the number of different angles air can approach the openings is reduced.. this allows smoother flow and possibly better evacuation of the inner fender area.... Now here is a problem.... air cannot exit the openings from anywhere behind the louvers... they are blocking access to the openings from aft of the openings... this would imply that you need to almost entirely block flow past the openings or you will create a dead end that can only force the air that does not exit the openings to go down... under the car... thus adding to lift at speed... Another problem... mechanical design.. especially with fiberglass would like to have the tops and bottoms of the angled louvers capped in order to stabilize and support the louvers themselves... well again we reduce the number of directions that air can approach the openings... this would increase smoothness of flow... but it would also block air escaping from above or below the openings... thus creating another area that air can get into and only escape by going under the car... again we need something inside the fender to block flow to these areas... we would need another structure to funnel air towards the front edge of the louvers and block any airflow above, below, or past these openings... assuming we can funnel air to where it needs to go... we may find that a cosmetic air opening would not be nearly big enough to do the job... thereby forcing air under the car via a different path.... The top vents could still be used as long as the under-fender sheets to funnel air towards the gill openings still performed thie jobs... ei... not allowing air past the gill openings... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The diffuser/ venturi aft of the nose splitter, under the chassis at the front wheel section.... is a way of reducing pressure and adding downforce on the front end... it is designed to make use of the small amount of air that cannot be redirected over or around the car... Air that goes under the front splitter flows smoothy along the bottom of the car and reaches a seciton right in front of the front wheels that begins to diverge upwards... as long as airflow is smooth it will flow laminarly up and accelerate in the taller cavity.... this will literally suck the nose of the car downwards... the underbody pan then reconverges with the ground in a smooth manner which will cuase a slight amount of increased pressure as it converges again... the idea is that the downforce is significantly forward of the area of lift... which will increase overall downforce on the front end...the area of lift is minimized by recoverging the surfaces in a gentle manner...

This is a great question... I would love to see more info on this subject... I have been mulling around with this idea myself... also... some pictures of peoples gill vents and top vents would be nice.....

Is it lowered??? Is it resting on the bumpstops... Some people don't realize that a stock s-30 Z does not have much travel to begin with.. you lower it a couple of inches and you are sitting on your bumpstops... that will make it feel like it has no suspension at all...

more progress.... First off... I decided to lower the rear part of the seat mounts even more... Then I got started on installing the subframe connectors... there is still some work to be done... more welding and closing up the holes in the floors...

Those are rear offset bushings... the front pair have a wide/thick hex on one end... you are missing 2 of them...

Guys have used their specific skills to create their own car from scratch.. this requires owning a shop... or having the freedom at someone else's shop to accomplish the labor for free.... and knowing how to subcontract others to do specific things you cannot... Most guys are going to spend 3-6k for a donor 1984-1992 Camaro... fix up the existing engine and tranny... then junk the body... you don't need a crate engine to do this... in fact you can sometimes auction off the Camaro interior bits for some extra cash.. . The Donor method is the best, inexpensive way to deal with the swap... it has most of the little bits you will need to make it work in the S-30 Z car... and the JTR kit is built around this method... Other than that... you don't need a lot of horsepower to make the little S-30 Z cars go fast around a track... it needs to be light and well set up... the V-8 conversion can improve the center of gravity and the balance of the chassis... Laps times are really improved by adding sticky tires and keeping them applied to the ground... A chevy SB engine IS heavier than the Datsun motor... but it depends on what motor you a talking about... Aluminum components can greatly reduce the weight a of Chevy 350 engine... as well as getting rid of AC, AIR pump, and emissions harware on Datsun OR Chevy engines... headers weigh considerably less than stock cast iron manifolds.. even if they make no other discernable improvements... Late model radiators weigh much less than the overheated bronze statue they call a Datsun radiator... If you start with a bone stock 280Z and swap the original powertrain to a carburated lightweight SB350 with no AC and no emissions it will definitely be lighter when you are done... considerably lighter and better balanced... Brakes are a consideration.. but the factory brake system works well if you rebuild it... DO NOT for any reason discount the rear drums as not functional.... You will see a considerable improvement by switching the front brakes to a heavier vented disk and Toyota calipers... ducting cold air to the brakes will even get you through occasional track events.... But... if you are going to change everything you might as well go with the Willwoods or similar kits offered by Arizona Z car, Modern Motorsports, and others... Honestly... the full race kit is not much more expensive and certainly no more trouble to install than the rear disk swaps from other car models.... Have you ever inquired about painting these old cars.... rust is ALWAYS and issue.. even a zero rust car has a rust issue SOMEWHERE... it is inevitable... people with some experience can tell you what to look for and how to fix it... body shops DO NOT do a very good job at tackling rust issues... you pay a little or a lot.. you never know the outcome until it starts to blister in 2 or 3 years... $$$ for paint... priceless... Suspension needs a little help on the S-30 chassis... there is simply no adjustment... lowering the car can cause problems that are not easily fixed... maximizing the car for street use while making it track capable..occasionally... will cost you around $1k if you can do most of the labor yourself... a track star suspension/chassis can run anywhere from $3-10K... or more.... so there ya go... the engine is only a tiny consideration in the scope of the project...

not decided what you are going to do with the car... or I would have assumed it would have been stated by now... You gotta figure.... you can spend endless money on any one aspect of a car... for show cars its all about fit and finish.. a complete stock restoration could be as high as $15K... for a custom show car look... $$$ could be higher and have absolutely nothing to do with performance... For performance... A dragster drivetrain could easily cost $20k and the car could still look like it was dredged out of a lake.... the Pink's Z comes to mind.... A Road track car could have $40 in a total performance package and still look like crap... no interior, no AC, 2 way radio only, with a rattle bomb paint job... So... what do you want???.... and don't wast your time on a street "Tuner" 240Z... it will never fit in with the Honda crowd... besides K/Wal-mart bling is cheap and easy to apply...

A project like this requires a great deal of research... there are several members here that can do the conversion for you if you do not have the skills... Use the forum search function and peruse the files.... this has been in discussion for decades... all kinds of things are possible... Jags That Run (JTR) has a manual available to guide you in the conversion process.. this is usually THE FIRST STEP.... Keep in mind that early Datsuns are rife with rust... as with any classic car these issues must be dealt with in ADDITION to the engine conversion process... chassis stiffening depends on what you plan to do with the car.... IMHO the S-30 cars are best suited to Road Racing.... So an SCCA 4-point roll bar and subframe connectors are a good idea for a track days/street car. People have installed JY motors for less than $1k... others like me are going to end up $20-30k involved... ZZ4 is a good choice for a first motor.... and if falls right in the middle of your range... keep in mind that on a road race track... horsepower has surprisingly little to do with improving your lap times... the S-30 cars need a lot of help in the suspension tuning department.. the only thing adjustable on a stock 240Z is front toe angle...

that is a lot of angle on the engine tranny... but it does make it easier to fit.