DavyZ

Scott, thanks for the EFI site referral. I'll be honest with ya, though, I'm not quite up to EFI complexity yet, but my next swap will be EFI--that you can count on!

Thanks for the replies! Ahh, the sound of reason and fact, not folklore! Drewz: that sounds like a realistic method, but I am no body & paint guy. I am, however, a mangler and I can baseball bat that fender lip something good... Jeromio: if that tool exists, I want one..NOW! I can practice all day at the junk yard on some wrecked Z car to get good at it before attacking my own car. Gracias David

Lone, you have come to the right place for an offhanded comment!!! Seriously, I have nothing to add except this: thank you for paving the way for me to save money by letting you make the mistakes before I do, and then fully documenting (with pictures no less!) all your painstaking work for FREE. Man I love you. Sincerely, David [This message has been edited by DavyZ (edited April 16, 2001).]

With all due respect, the tone of his post started with three negative generalizations about the exhaust systems guys use in this forum. That is a fact: read his post again if you don't believe me. I answered in a very candid manner, addressing each of his assumptions. I then added a smiley and put in my $.02 of advice which he asked for. This is somehow jumping on his case??? Am I missing something here?? Or as Lone would say, "Well roll me in chocolate & nuts and call me O'Henry!"

Me too! Most of them are built on a VW Bug chassis anyway and they probably got it for free. Up close that thing may be really rough. A local yard here has a Maserati 20ft in the air, only it's a real one!

This seems to have been a topic of late and came from an idea on a thread in the Brakes & Chassis Forum. Here's the deal: rolling the inner fender lips in the rear of the Z. Since many of us are running some wide meats in the rear, we have a choice of going to flares if the fit is too tight or rolling the inner fender lips flat. I have heard of several ways of doing this, but would like to have someone who has direct knowledge to reply (anyone can chime in, though with questions/answers/ideas). Here is what I know, and tell me if I am wrong: 1) the baseball bat/broomstick method. This involves literally putting a bat or broomstick between the tire (smaller one, not the one you want to run) and the lip, while getting some friends to sit in the back of the car causing the lip to bend inward while you roll the car down a driveway or whatever. The idea is the lip rolls up nicely while the car moves. I saw a bad example of this done to a very nice Z at a show recently, and it looked like crap sice the rolling was not uniform and the paint cracked around the shoddy, uneven work. 2) Cut and massage method. This idea came from a person who doesn't do bodywork, but hey, neither do I--so what do I know? The inner lip is cut every few inches and then pounded or rolled upwards into the inner fenderwell. The bad part is that this leaves bare metal exposed between the cuts. Not good in the rust areas. I had a 510 that had very wide rear wheels. The previous owner did a stunning job to roll the inner fender lips and they were not cut, were not uneven, were not visible from the exterior, but were done in such a way so as not to trap debris from the road, thus saving me from any rust issues. Good/better ideas are welcome here! David

Lone, I was just thinking about rolled fenders the other day after seeing a BAD example on an otherwise very nice Z at the Palo Alto show (you went?). Soooo, I'm posting this topic in the body and paint forum. Please feel free to jump in there! Thanks, David

Definitely get a GOOD ground strap from the engine to the car, and from the battery to the car. Make sure the cable is in GOOD condition. I had a 200SX that had major electrical issues, all because the ground wire had somehow gotten battery acid in it was disrupting it's function!!!! Once that was taken care of, voila, no more issues! Try it; it's cheap, and it's good insurance anyway.

I like Lone's idea of the "paintless" dent removal. The day before I quit the dealership, I had Dent Erasers take every door ding (and more) out of the Q45. The guy did an excellent job and even made mild (but long) crease dents disappear! There were at least 12 ding/dents on the car and it cost me an insider price of $200. Totally worth it IMO. When I buy a 240 roller, I will do that over bondo any day of the week!

And yes, that was Hoover's Primadonna Z. Much better looking in person, I might add! The venting has a black OEM type of steel mesh over it (think MBZ M series grill material) and looks killer! I swear that the MSA show is going to be even better! Hope to see you guys there.

That was a great show! The quality of cars there was really good. Lotsa custom stuff I had not seen before--body tricks and such. I'm the guy on the third page in the grey sweater, thumbs up, and a silly grin on his face. I met Randy, who posts regularly on this forum, there and a few other people as well. Randy gave me a ride in his turbo 1st generation Z--it's fast... The 510's took most of the trophies and there were a few nice roadsters there too. The day was great and I'm glad Dennis was there to take all the footage for ZCarsOnline.

I wonder what he would say to my toilet paper oil filter (remember those?) that was used on my '72 510 by the previous owner?

I was debating the 914 swap or the Z swap. After considering all the $$$ I was going to spend, I chose the Z. The "kit" is much cheaper (JTR) and the trannys are by and large American and relatively inexpensive to the 911 trannys that I would have ended up using anyway, as well as upgrading the front to 911 specs, etc, etc. Ours is not a cheap hobby, I know, but all things considered, the Z was a better alternative.

quote: Originally posted by ZCarKid: I've heard a lot about exhaust systems on this forum and by and large they seem to be expensive, unwieldy, or corked up. Ummm, expensive relative to what? I'm sure one could get by with a $200 exhaust job, but I'm not an average person with an average car. Custom fabrication costs money, even for an exhaust. There are "cheap" people like me on the forum who get the maximum performance they can for the least amount of money--we make our decisions based on what we read. Yes, we do make mistakes and post our opinions. There are millionaires on this site who ceramicote their mandrel bent systems like Pete By unwieldy I'm assuming you mean loud? If that is the case, loud is a matter opinion. "Corked up" means that some of us have small systems on big motors, yes? A few of us run a single 2.5" exhaust on mild 350's, but that will do fine...I'm running a single 3" system that will do great for up to at least 400hp... As far as running glass packs under the rockers, well, anything is possible. Just remember that you do not want to cut the rocker panels on your car if at all possible; they have structural characteristics. But if you run a full tube frame, who cares? Have you measured for ground clearance for this idea? I'm guessing that your car is stock height, yes? Click to the pictures on http://www.zcarsonline.com and find a black Z in the show--it has side pipes, but not "glass packs." This looks to be a fairly expensive alternative to a standard exhaust system. Have you used the archives and searched out the exhaust topics? This has come up more than once.

RyalC, please tell me you didn't type all those specs out!!! If you did, bless you my son, but you have too much time on your hands!!!

Welcome to the forum, Steve. It sounds like you are already getting underway with your project. I do hope that you are placing the engine in the JTR setback position when you do the swap. This will help with the steering feel a bit since you are also running wide tires. The power steering has been put in by a few people, among them "alsil" and "blueovalz" from the Ford V8 forum. Look for post in the archives under the "alsil" name and you'll find his website with tons of information. He is doing a commendable job of photographing and documenting his conversion. Hope this helps. David

I can't point you to pictures of such a car, but I will tell you that it looks like the bomb when they are gone! I was at the ZONC sponsored Z/510/Roadster show & shine this weekend in Palo Alto, and one black Z there had the gutters removed--totally awesome. It also had the side vents filled in and the door handles shaved as well as no seams or battery doors near the hood. Totally sweet looking. This came up a long while ago here, but the biggest drawback to getting rid of the gutters was that the roof is apparently spot welded on the rail to the top of the car, which means that if you grind off the rail completely, there will be nothing holding your roof on. A guy in this forum was doing it and putting very small welds as he went along so he wouldn't warp any metal. Don't fool yourself, it is a big job but very well worth the "look." David

That is one serious Z car conversion. You have specs on how fast that thing will go with that motor? I guess you have to wait until the snow melts...

The Sterling never was a hit here--due to poor marketing and a high price (at the time). The Sterling was a Honda/Rover joint venture car that was really nice. Think of: the reliability of a Honda and the luxury of a Rover. That, my friend, is a nice car. David, that was a totally cool score. Thanks for posting that information. I knew the Hyundai spare would fit and be kinda on the wimpy side, but that Sterling spare, man, who woulda thunk?!? David

Ahhh yes, that's the article. Thanks, Pete, for posting that! David

Pete, thanks for taking time to post all that information...twice! I'll change mine out eventually for something better, but it would be great to do it with a little less cobbling. No offense! I'm sure the Ford unit is great, but..oh what the heck, I'll look at one in the junk yard and see if it fits. Thanks again for the info. David

400hp on 87 octane is sooo cool! That engine you could take anywhere! Do you remember the heads they used and the specs for the camshaft? I'll try to dig up this article if I can find it. Doesn't HotRod have online archives now? David

You can find good rebuild kits from a number of sources. Depending on what you are looking for (gaskets & rings only, w/pistons, w/crank, etc, etc) you can find really decent, cost effective ones from PAW, Northern Auto Parts, Summit, Speed-O-Motive, etc. Most of these companies have web sites and most advertise in HotRod and CarCraft magazines. Many kits include a camshaft of your choice, but since you already have one, see if they will throw in something extra for you. In reading your post again, the most basic kit you can buy is probably from www.northernautoparts.com Hope this helps! David

This is a valuable upgrade that I would love to see someone else do FIRST! Really, those wimpy blower motors in the Z have to go--they are as bad as a 30 year old hairdryer...no, worse!

Those things work...BUT, they are a royal PITA! They can even sense the differences between makes of bulbs. Yes, you heard that correctly, the stupid light goes off every time you step on the brakes if you mismatched bulbs by size, type, or BRAND! I HATE that light on my Volvos. Useless! David