LS/T56/240z Project Mentor Wanted

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Any pics of the rollbar progress? Specifically the strut tower plates?

 

And awesome! Finally going in for the cut! The car is going to look incredible.

[RebekahsZ]

Will post pics when cage is done. I'm not in love with the boxes on the floor. Would have preferred just a flat plate on the angled portion behind the seat. But the fabricator illogically thought that a diagonal plate was somehow weaker than a box. I personally think a foot plate is a footplate whether it is an angle or not. It just spreads the load.

[RebekahsZ]

Decided not to confuse things by taking car out of shop status. Let the autocross go witgout me. Fabricator had a red eye so I made him meet me at my clinic this morning. Plucked an iron filing out of his cornea. He asked what he owed me and I said, "Nothing, just HURRY UP AND FINISH MY CAGE!" I'm in roll bar purgatory. Air was cool and clean today, temps in the 70s. The track over the border in TN was open and I heard it was a lot of fun. Aaaaaah!!! It burns, it burns!

[WarlordZ]

I've been to Huntsville the past two weeks. You should try that track when you get the car back. That's where I've had my best luck.

[WarlordZ]

Also, I just heard that US 43 Dragway is down for at least a month due to concrete repair.

[RebekahsZ]

I'm hoping to roam a lot this summer. Huntsville, pickwick, Moulton, n. Alabama, Steele, Memphis, Clayton, GA, Wilmington, OH. If I can I would also like to autocross at Enterprise, AL. I wonder what happened at L-berg? I talked to a buddy who made three 8-sec passes on Saturday. I'd love to find put that they are going to make things stickier.

[RebekahsZ]

Main hoop is mocked up in spot welds. Rear supports are in. Pending diff support bars and door bars. Maybe it will be finished this week. But, fabricator has been willing to make changes as I ask him. Main hoop it so tight he had to remove the little nipples on the inside of the inner quarters where the little plastic seatbelt hanger hooks screw in. Photos next week when it is finished.

[SUNNY Z]

need some pics, keith. I know you have a cell phone!

[RebekahsZ]

Went by after work and there's a ton still to be done. The NHRA door bar needs to be placed such that it is in a perfect spot to hit that little boney knob on you elbow that hurts like hell. Should have the angle right to be able to get to door latch and window crank. I see removeable door bars in my future but not this year (I gotta get done). The one thing the door bar placement should help with is in giving me a place to rest my left elbow to keep the car gong straight better. But I'm gonna bruise that same elbow all up at an autocross. Wish I felt like gutting doors but I like my roll up windows. Like everything else, it's gonna take some getting used to. He swears it will be ready for pick up Friday night so I plan to go get it and settle up Sat morn. I will take pics then. Will probably put pics up while I'm at the beach freezing in my hotel room next week. Will load my phone with pics sat. I think I'm gonna be satisfied, but probably not totally satisfied. Life.

[RebekahsZ]

See fabrication thread for a post today on my roll bar.  It is finished.  Took car directly from his shop to another fabricator to have the ZG flare work done, any roll bar burn-thru holes repaired in the floor, seat back brackets made, and hood pins welded in place.  I see a paint job this winter.  The car is getting a lot of shop rash.

 

Did I mention how much I LOVE my AZC disc brakes?  I have gone from white knuckle, linkage breaking, sore-leg braking; to one-toe, heal on the floor, braking way too early shear bliss.  I had no idea how bad my breaks really were.  I'm in heaven.

Edited March 23, 2014 by RebekahsZ

[RebekahsZ]

One week at fabricator. $810 so far. Rear fenders are done, various bolt and burn-thru holes in floors patched. Still to go: door alignment, fender exhaust exit hole enlarged, seat brackets, seat adjusters lowered, hood pins welded to chassis. The fenders had a lot of rust and one inner fender had to be re-made. It all looks amazing and worth every penny. I love my fabricator.

[RebekahsZ]

Went by fabricators shop today. Car looks awesome. Hood pins done, rear fenders done, floorboard holes all done, new driver door hinges replaced and door alignment done, lowered seat rails in progress. The lowered seat rails are kind of ugly, but they work. He may dress them up a little, but for the moment ugly. They are covered up by the seats so who cares. But I'm not just a skin deep kind of guy. I was afraid of how car would look with the fenders clearanced so much, but with the 28" slicks and BAMF flares it looks freaking incredible. And I have all the tire clearance in the world. Pics when I pick it up this weekend or early next week.

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Exciting!

[RebekahsZ]

Posting some update pictures.  It's been a while, so here you go.

 

Only 3 passes so far this season.  First 1/8-mile pass: 7.18, second was 7.22, third was DNF at the line due to broken inner CV/stub axle.  One All-Nissan show at ZAttack in Nashville-I won a door prize-a hat!  Next big milestone is tech inspection at ECTA at Ohio in June to make plans for this coming winter's safety mods.  After that, just the usual drag racing and autocrossing, then a 1/2-mile time trail at the Georgia 1/2-mile in Clayton, GA Sep 13-14.

Edited April 24, 2014 by RebekahsZ

[RebekahsZ]

Picked up some taller street tires so that I can keep the miles off my slicks.  I wanted something cheap, poor traction, and skinny so that I can do lots of smoky line-lock burnouts without putting too much strain on my axles.  The street tires are BFG 235/75/15.  They should handle like crap, which should help with the temptation to drive fast on the street. 

[RebekahsZ]

After snapping the axle, I now have the broken axle repaired and another set built up in reserve (my hands are killing me).  Also have a full set of CVs cleaned and stored in light oil in case I have more repairs in the future (cleaning up the CVs is the most aggravating part of repairing axles).  I went looking for the little clunk I've been hearing in the steering and found out my rack tube bushings are totally shot.  Glad I found this before something catastrophic occurred!  Just ordered a rebuilt rack from DatsunPartsLLC.com.  Working to get a set of ZCC JDM outer tie rods so I can get that taken care of too and save myself an extra alignment.  Burned off all my fuel so I can drop the tank and get started on the aluminum battery relocation box.  Ordering a set of 28X9X15 Hoosier slicks, trying to find somebody who has this narrow size in stock.  I really only went to taller slicks to allow me to stay off the rev limiter in the 1/8th, and the MT 10.5s were dead hooking.  So, I'm gonna compromise with a set of 28s for gearing, but sacrifice a little traction by going down to 9" wide.  I do think the Hoosier has a thinner, more pliable sidewall than the MT, so perhaps that will cushion the driveline better.  Will try to scare up another set of 8" rims so I can do a comparison, and maybe use the 9" slicks at tracks with good prep and the 10.5s on tracks that are slick.  Looks like I'm probably on the jackstands until the June 5 trip to Ohio.  The summer is off to a slow start.

[dreco]

 They should handle like crap, which should help with the temptation to drive fast on the street. 

[RebekahsZ]

Spent the last two days replacing the steering rack. ZCC/JDM tie rods aren't in stock so I kept my OEM stuff. Got to use my Longacre toe plates and used my neighbors storm shelter/oil change pit to get the toe set approximately to zero. Found a weld in my cage I don't like the looks of so I'm headed to the cage guy tomorrow to have him go over that one weld again. Have passenger seat out and hoping to be priming the cage tomorrow before the sun goes down. I think I found the source of my difficult starting-either a bad battery or a bad alternator. Sure hope its the battery. Stuck a trickle charger on it and will have them both checked on the way home tomorrow. My buddy found a set of used drag radials for $100 so I'm getting closer to having my rolling stock on hand. Starting to wonder of my wheel studs are going to pass tech at ECTA. Those guys are pretty clear about their lug nuts and even with the extended studs, if you combine Draglites and spacers, my studs still look too short. I don't know if an inspector will recognize that Weld lug nuts are threaded all the way through. Will look at some Vision wheels to see if they have something that will work. Resolved to leave car home for ECTA in a couple weeks, but still going as a spectator.

[RebekahsZ]

My summer of racing isn't going to happen. Have relocated Mom to Florence and for the moment we are her only social outlet so most spare time is going to her. Wife put her foot down on a pool, which on the surface isn't too bad. But, my yard has 8' of fall in the zone where the pool needs to go if the world only had 2 dimensions. So, planning for that has my brain pretty tied up as well. Found time to drop of my S-10 truck for a 6.0 LS swap. Hoping to also get a Blazer LSD/disc brake equipped diff put into it too. Budget for that is $5k and one month. I expect both the time and cost to be surpassed. I will be Sharing a car with my daughter, so I expect that to get old for her quick. So, I expect my family to BEG me to get the Z back on the road as a daily driver. That will motivate some much needed Z car time! First step is to finish seat brackets that will give me some helmet clearance. They are bent but need to be drilled and mounted.

[RebekahsZ]

Out of town for 9 days. Im in NYC headed to Paris and wish i could have planned to put EvilZ's CCWs in my checked baggage home! Touched base with the shop doing my truck. They have a super clean LQ4 they are prepping to swap into it for me (it took 2 years to swap the Z and the truck is my DD, so I'm paying it out this time). They say that they will likely use a Corvette Accy drive system to allow me to use a car intake (I just like the looks). The LQ4 fits the bill fine cause I want to run 87 octane.

Got an email from the used race tire dealer called jphglobal. They finally got a couple of 275/40/17 Hoosier A6s, so I bought a pair for the back of the Z. They don't turn up very often. I'm hardly doing any racing this year, so I will mount them and bag them up in trash bags for next year.