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Happy to add my 2 cents, especially since I've been asked to join in. I read this thread last night and was trying to make sense of it. @Sean Dezart - You messaged me about posting these wheels on my own forum (www.viczcar.com). But before I gave you the go ahead, I wanted to know more about these wheels and the product before giving you the go ahead for several reasons. I recall seeing someone in Eastern Europe offering the M-speed style wheels for literally half the price of what M-speed were charging elsewhere. Naturally this seemed too good to be true. Subsequently there was discussion around the person offering these wheels and how they were so cheap? From what I could ascertain before the listings were removed from Marketplace is that they were squirrelled out of the backdoor of the same factory M-speed had commissioned to cast them in China. Bypassing M-speed who had done all the ground work in bringing them to market. You started offering the style of wheels (The Kobe Seiko Rally Mags (wide) and 432 spec (narrow)) a few weeks later. I asked you if you had gone to the effort of reproducing the wheels or if they were M-speed and you were distributing for them, but I didn't get a clear answer. This photo of the "Made in" and the rest appears ground off.. https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/64479-parts-for-sale-4x-reproduction-nissan-fairlady-z432-wheels-in-aluminum/?do=findComment&comment=606678 To me it looks like you're trying to obfuscate where they have come from or who made them for that matter, but why do that? Anyway, why does it matter where they came from or where they are made? Simple, M-speed spent a lot of money, time and R&D to bring these wheels to market, so whatever price they charge is their business and they should be able to charge whatever price they want. The market will tell them if it's too expensive or not. If you were to commission the same wheels, do the same R&D and decide to offer them at half the price of M-speed, that would be fair. Nobody would be complaining. But what you're doing is taking the hard work and capital that M-speed has kicked into this project and undercut them, but this also creates another downstream problem. Determining which wheels are from M-speed and which ones are posing as M-Speed. It may also deter companies like M-speed from doing similar projects in future as a result and as a community we all lose out when that happens. Q. How do you know the ones sold to you direct from the factory are of the same quality as the ones M-speed is selling? Has it not occurred to you that M-speed may have many batches of wheels sent to them for testing before selling them to the wider market and a bunch of those wheels may be discarded after QC because of the Chinese attitude of "Cha Bu Duo"? Or that the wheels commissioned by M-speed must be done to a higher standard and strength and materials (alloys used must be higher quality), and since they are charing M-speed more for this standard that's fine, but if they are selling them out the back door or via Alibaba marketplace then just Cha Bu Duo will do? Example of wheel testing in Japan on Weds Wheels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJeFB6SRslk This is why I have concerns about the wheels myself, since I'm not sure what testing has been done and if you are checking any of these wheels yourself for quality and standards. Let's face it the people who want these wheels are probably looking to mount them on cars they have invested a lot of money into and the last thing they want when driving at 100km/h and hitting a pot hole is to have a wheel crack in half on them and cause them to crash or injure themselves. I'm also going through the process of potentially making Kobe Seiko wheels (yes I will call them replicas) but in 15x8 +0 spec. As you know I have 3 'original' Kobe Seiko magnesium wheels in my possession. 1x wide and 2x narrow. We have had the wide version scanned already, but scanning was simple. The next step was to convert that rough scan into a more 'solid' CAD version and tidy up the roughness of the scan itself. Then extrapolate the spokes to make it 15" and widen it to 8". You can see this in the images here. My partner and I (in this venture) have already invested quite a bit of money to get the project to this stage. The next stages will include what's known as FEA (Finite Element Analysis) which involves VSB14 and the standards for the wheels are to be made to comply with: AS 1638-1991 and ISO 3006:2015 (or a more updated version if there is 1). I believe this will be equivalent to the Japanese industry certification that Alan was referring to, but in Australia. Once we get through all of that, it will be onto sourcing high grade alloy material and working with a local foundry to start casting wheels. We still don't know what it will cost to turn out the first wheel, but I'm guessing it won't be cheap. In part because we are not going to go the China route like everyone else. I believe this thread is a good reason why, but also we will have more control over quality and quantity produced. But also we will be employing locals and local industry keeping skills local. I actually think you'd be better off becoming an M-speed distributor rather than trying to undercut them. This is because anyone who has an interest in these wheels is likely to also have an interest in quality items being fitted to their car and not likely wanting to risk it by fitting Cha Bu Duo spec wheels to their car. If you were to contact the local foundry in Australia that helps me produce my own wheels looking to buy direct from them, then I'd want them to tell you to go away as Alan mentioned. Since they are contracted to produce a wheel where I own the casting mould or buck and have invested in that capital / tooling to produce them. The foundry was paid to make the wheel for myself (and partner) not so they can take that design / pattern and go make 1000s of them to sell on eBay etc..

They could have written a procedure that made much more sense. If you look at the drawing you can see that the inner race is actually used to "press" in the outer race by applying force through the balls. That's supposed to be bad (potential for "brinelling") but that's how they do it. You can also see that any speck of metal shaving or grime that stops the outer race from fully seating will screw up the relationship between the inner and outer races. The whole point of the torqueing exercise is to get the two races on the same plane so that the balls will be centered in each race. The preload and/or end play measurements are just confirmation that that has happened. So, the best procedure, after you get the seal pounded all the way in, would seem to be to make sure the outer race seat area is perfectly clean and burr-free, then torque the nut to its minimum value. Then take your two measurements and either keep torqueing if they're not right, or stop if they are right, even at the minimum torque value. The whole point of increasing the torque beyond the minimum is to compress the distance piece, drawing the inner races together. Once the races are aligned, the job is done, except for the peening, if you're in the peening camp. I just felt compelled to write that, while it was clear in my head...

I can help plated hood latch parts if you’d like...

See photo. Engine hoist. Cargo straps. Bath towels wrapped around engine hoist boom arm and hatch to protect hatch paint and glass. With one set of cargo straps centred vertically and another centred horizontally, and using the cross-over point as the lift location, the hatch was pretty well balanced for a flat lift. I trimmed it out by adding small weights (socket wrench sockets) as required on the hatch surface. This wasn't so important during removal, but it was very important during re-installation in order to get the hinge bolt holes to line up.

Spot on Zedhead [emoji1317][emoji106][emoji106] I was hyper paranoid about clean surfaces where the outer races went home and you just explained it perfectly!!

Kidney anyone ? 😁

LOL... I dislike that word too... confuses people on one's relationship these days. More importantly... Great grass-roots effort! Luv it!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had the same thing on the first side I did. Gotta get that seal pounded all the way in (gently!) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bloomin eck! Now you are scaring me! [emoji33][emoji33][emoji15]

This is the problem.... Chinese crap metal and fakes are getting in all the supply chains everywhere... when planes start falling out of the sky because of fake electronic etc.then hopefully it will be dealt with appropriately... until then we have to wait sadly. I have two 2000 Honda Insights and crap Chinese replacement batteries are prevalent... they fail after a couple of years from strange manufacturing short cuts. Some people have paid ~ $3k for a set of crap!!! The original Panasonic from 20 years ago still last longer and are better to keep in and grid charge. Don't dare buy a used expensive guitar without checking. MAINLAND Chinese fakes are everywhere... btw Made in Taiwan is totally different...low risk there.

@Gav240z Care to comment on this, Gavin? I don't get Sean's constant reference to the words 'Reproduction', 'Replica' - or whatever rubbery and blurred-around-the-edges terms we care to use - as being so troublesome. We all know these terms are moveable feasts at the best of times. It's just a distraction.

I often take a Philips and a Pozidriv bit, when they stick and stay in it in the horizontal position, thats the one i use.. Yours is philips.. this is pozidriv. An extra star in the cross and these are deeper, This problem is less common with the improved version of the Philips: the Pozidriv, which was introduced in the 1960s. In addition to a deeper center, this screw head has four additional star-shaped slots, which improve grip. In Europe, the Pozidriv is the most common screw head today!

Thanks for sharing . All but one were made in the last 20 years . Jeez - I’m glad I’m faster than a 300 Chrysler - lol. Working on a diesel intake conversion for the motor . This will be interesting . Much .bigger and longer runners . I’m a month out from a dyno session

Got to dig into my situation. Preliminary assessment: One good dent on the hood. Wish it weren't so close to the edge. Bad photo, but there's very small break on the opposite side that I don't remember seeing. If I can avoid repainting the bottom of the hood too, that'll be a win. Bumper buckled on the top and bottom. No scrapes or dents anywhere, though! Not sure the best way to get it back to shape, but seems doable. Bracket got pretty well twisted. Probably need to remake at least one of them. Air dam took a little damage from the bumper and one of the holes isn't looking great. I can clean up the bumper recess with body filler. It's not a super-visible piece, so maybe I can get away with touchup paint instead of repainting the whole thing. Headlight needs a massage. Grill was mostly unscathed. As does the hood hinge and the fender support piece on the front end. Best news: no damage to the area around the radiator core support. Feel confident that there's no frame or structural damage. The headlight bucket is wrecked. The fender isn't much better. Gotta source a few parts. Not sure what I'll tackle first. Even though everything here is about the best I could've hoped for, I'm kind of unenthusiastic about it all right now. Oh, and when I came out of the gym last night, I found that THIS happened to my other car in the parking lot. You gotta be kidding me....

Great reference thread! Thanks.

Is this "meta"? Still trying to get a good grasp on that word..

For whatever reason, if you felt you had to remove the hinge to body bolts (blue), you could always draw around the hinge with a Sharpy pen to show you where to put the hinge back. I do this with the hood hinges all the time before I take the hood off. Clearly the red flat head red bolts are your best bet. Don’t try to take them out with a screw driver, get a Philips bit in a ratchet and socket to give you good leverage. They are tight. Make sure the bit you choose fits the Philips head tightly. Might have to use an impact type bolt remover to get them started. Even though the possible problems may be swaying you toward removing the body bolts, don’t...

The original Q plate:

So I had mentioned above that if you are going to do the split collar perch support concept, you need to pay attention to the collar size. This is what happens when you impulse buy 2" collars for your 280Z because you assumed they were the right size. They aren't. The 2" collars are too small and won't fit around the 55mm (2.165) diameter 280Z tubes: Not wanting to admit defeat, I aligned the collars and chucked them up in the lathe and bored them out to fit the 280 strut tubes. Looked like this on the lathe: In the end, I had to take off so much material that they got a little Swiss-cheesie, but good enough for the temporary use that I plan for them. Would have been better to start out with 2 1/8 collars instead of 2". I would still have had to bore them out some, but not as much and they wouldn't be quite so holy: But in the end, here's what the bored out collar looks like on the 280 tube. Should be "good enough." :

So, the local Caffeine & Octane decided to feature Japanese cars among others in the main lot. (It's not unusual for 2500+ cars to show up monthly.) Several Z car owners signed up and parked in the lot. Afterward, we also did a group photo with the Z owners who stuck around.

You should see Jim's bathrooms!

Well I got some good work done this week Most of the tar and undercoat is off now, I have a 40lb box of it sofar but still have a couple of days of washing everything down with solvent. The scraping didn't take as long as I thought it would. After four days of scraping I headed back into the patches, Here is the car I really bought. Previous owner left some stuff in the car, maybe I'll box it up and ship it back to him Had to cut out the rear seat mounts cause I couldn't find any other way to get through the layers and I already removed the bottom layer before I cut out this section, Here I've started to prep for floor pan fitment, I was hoping that I could keep the forward seat mount in place and fit from underneath but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that. Parts of the rockers need work too but if the floor is out at the same time as the rocker I'll have to take it off the rotis and block it up horizontal to keep proper spacing. When I'm I going to learn, VISIBLE RUST IS ONLY 10% OF WHAT IS THERE! Madkaw, I'll pm you, pics would be very good right now.