johnc

If you're completely stripping the car via media blasting you don't need to use a rust encapsualtor or converter liker POR15. Physically remove ALL the rust and patch all the rusty panels. Do all of the body work and when its ready for paint use a high zinc etching primer. Make sure the entire body is sprayed with that stuff and cut small spray holes in the frame rails and other body cavity area to spray inside. After everythign dries plug those holes withe rubber body plugs. Do it right. Make sure there is NOT rust anywhere on the car before painting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_burn

Ever driven in a delivery van with a bulkhead behind the seats?

The fan doesn't matter once your speed gets above about 25mph. 210F on a race track is normal.

I would rebuild, revalve the Konis. You can call Koni direct for that. On the Bilstiens what you're seeing is the shock body, not the shock shaft. They are an inverted design.

Stop! Before you even think about buiulding a tube frame front end you must make sure you have a flat, level surface to mount the entire car on. Its very important that you have a flat/ level surface to measure from and way of attaching the chassis to that surface so it won't move if you bump it or do a bit of hammering on it. You also need good measureing tools including angle finders, levels, squares, metal rules, plumb bobs and frickin' lasers.

Scotch brite pad and Acetone.

Rear the Brakes and Suspension FAQs on this site.

The SCCA rules do not require a mandrel bend. It states: "...with smooth bends and no evidence of crimping or wall failure."

Rust never sleeps... covering it up, encapsualting it, etc. doesn't work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLwm9P-n194

The larger the piston the more surface area the valving can have. It also gives more room for valving options. This can make the shock more repsonsive and tunable but it also gives the oil a larger surface area to work against. There's also a point where you're just adding weight/mass which can slow down the response. The pistons on my Penske triple adjustables were 38mm and they had everything a S30 would want in a shock. I'm not smart enough to know where the sweet spot is regarding piston size, vehicle weight, response, etc. I rely on the shock manufacturer for that advice. The 36mm is exactly the same kind of setup as in the brochure above. One the low end (and the first ones released), the shock will be non-adjsutable with 5 different valving setups to choose from for the S30. Bret has done a lot of development with S30s over the years (Steve Carlson runs a custom set of 34mms) and has a good idea of what the car needs. I'll have to do some machining for the top mount (unless they release it in 14 or 15mm) and make a welded on adapter for the strut casting. No eta yet.

Per Bret at Bilsiten Motorsports the 46mm would be overkill for a tarmac S30 but probably OK for a rally S30. They are also working on a 36mm version in the same style. That would be more appropriate for the S30 given the car's weight.

Triple webers, manifold, velocity stacks, and air filters are $1,000 all day long. Header is $100. MSD and coil are $75. That's $1175.00 in parts. For an additional $175 you get a running engine. Sounds like a deal to me.

A staggered setup can handle well. Basic suspension tuning (springs, shock adjustment, bars, alignment, air pressures) is all that's needed. Amir's old SR20DET 260Z with 255s front and 275s rear handled well and was fairly neutral on the track. But that same car would have been a bit faster around the track with 275s all around. We could have moved more roll stiffness to the front of the car because the 275 width tires could handle it. Doing that would have allowed us to soften the rear a bit and helped put power down. We're talking small changes (25 lb. in. in spring rate, 1 mm in bar thickness) but it would have reduced the lap times.

Remember, there is no best on HybridZ, Running staggered tire sizes sets the car up for more underteer in steady state cornering. It isn't an issue for a street driven car because you rarely, if ever exceed 8/10ths on the road. For your autocross plans it will be an issue.

Bastard! The latest has a complete writeup of Nissan's (really All American Racers) Deltawing with drag and down force numbers. Plus a long article about the history of aero in professional racing. Makes for long and thoughtful dumps.

A family member who is an operator in SOCOM said that the most important thing in all the black ops stuff they do is to sit still, watch, and listen.

The only drama in my fab shop is when I run out of toilet paper in the bathroom.

You guys do know that Car Warriors, American Chopper, American Hot Rod, Build or Bust, Overhauling, etc. are SCRIPTED reality shows. There's a basic outline of what's going to happen, who's going to win, and they have writers on staff to help with the dialog. I have a relative who is an editor for two of the shows I list above. Its not real.

Look for part number 5022 on the springs. That's the number for the Tokico HP 280Z springs. The S30 chassis will never have the turn-in that the Miata has but you can match it in grip. Because of the slow turn-in we tend to run the rear a bit looser to help the car rotate. You can run the 280Z front anti-roll bar and the 240Z rear anti-roll bar with the springs rates listed. Later, when you upgrade your springs and shocks, you can go to the smaller front bar.

From a handling perspective its better to run more spring and less bar. Anti-roll bars reduce the independence if an independent suspension and make the car less compliant over one wheel bumps. That being said, if, like most street cars, you're running soft shocks and springs then bigger bars add a level of roll stiffness that car is missing. So, to answer your question I need to know what shocks you're running, what spring rates, and what you intend to do with the car.

And the 240Z kit works better on any lowered S30 because the bar is mounted behind the diff. Do some reading on the Suspension FAQ.

DP Racing sells 1" front and 5/8" rear tubular adjustable anti-roll bars with rod end links. The ST kit 52095 kit is the preferred kit for a lowered S30. It has 1" front and 3/4" rear non-adjustable solid bars. I sell either of those kits.