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Vapor blasting gives a very nice original look finish. Here's an example of vapor blasting by a company near me, that provides this service:

Sounds like great Friday night dinner plans to me!!! I was going to say the first round is on me - but NOT with THIS crowd..... I'd have to dip into my 401k!!!!

Plus, yards of beer at the Golden Bee Pub ...

Chucking a rocker refers to a rocker coming dislodged from it's position. This can happen due to it being adjusted too loose, over-rev, or weak springs. If it partially dislodged, it could have caught the edge of the lobe. In your case, the rocker could have pivoted rearward. By the time the cam rotated back around, it was BARELY over the lobe. With the rocker pivoted, I'll bet that the chip in the rocker lines up with the chip in the lobe. The other possibility for the lobe damage is that it's in the rear of the lobe which could get damaged during assembly in the head. The cam is slid through the towers and if it wasn't carefully lined up, I suppose it could have caught a tower just right to chip it. As for the rocker, I'd sure verify that the pad isn't split. If it sheers, it will destroy the cam and then send metal throughout the engine.

I miss Walter Moore! He had a great 240 and got hit, totaled it. Now he's gone from here since the wreck. Maybe he still checks on us? @Walter Moore

You may find the air pressure to hold the valve closed does not work. You can use some rope stuff in the cylinder as well. If you do try the air pressure, make sure the car is in gear and the Emergency brake is set.

Hahahaha!!! As a matter of fact, I've been informed (by the wireless carrier) that my old phone won't work for very much longer and they are sending me a new phone. And get this... The new one is a 4G flip phone!! LOL! I read the reviews for the new phone and they're terrible... Everyone says the screen is really small and the apps that you can put on it are crappy. Well duh. Sounds perfect. And speaking of my old phone... Now it's getting hot when I charge it and the back is a little bulgey. So I won't need any blankets to keep warm. The lithium fire will be plenty warm. Now I just need it to last long enough for the new replacement to get here.

I went from MI to AZ, so I think I'm just as far away from you as I was before. Same goes to you Cliff. If you ever make it to the desert, let me know.

No worries Jim. me & Jim D will swing by and pick you up on our way past the north Dallas area ....

I chucked one right after a rebuild. I was breaking the motor in and heard a god awful tick from the valve train. Jeff told me the easy way to fix it and I've not had an issue since. @Jeff G 78 got instant hero status and respect from this guy. If you're ever in Alabama dinner and drinks are on me.

Max it out on the timing plate under the distributor. My car has the most advance I can get. Cam spocket on #3 from the git go and full advance on the timing plate. Runs great!

https://www.classiczcars.com/search/?&q=280zx distributor advance&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy It depends on the distributor, read this thread, theres a spread sheet in there:

Take a look on YouTube. There are a lot of excellent videos. Search "240Z valve seals".

Ok. Dday is tomorrow. Im removing the valve cam and connecting an air compressor to cylinder number 4 to keep the valve from falling. Any caution or consideration i should take in the process. I really need a guide in order to get this thing right change the seals and avoid opening any pandora box, sort of a step 1 , 2 and 3 guide.

Johnson & Johnson, one and done. In two weeks time Racer will be one of you.

Bloats. Love it! So yeah, I'd be happy to have you test the bloats. It would add one more data point as to the validity of the modification. I'll send you PM!

You mentioned that your car has been changed to electronic ignition, likely changes were made and that black wire is not used. Normally there are two condensers, one at the coil and one at the dizzy for the points circuit, at least that is how my 1970 is. Here is a picture of mine with the dist. cap removed. showing the connector spade (red arrow) where the black wire goes. FYI it's the yellow wire that is connected to the temperature switch on the thermostat housing. In your picture I see red and black wires in the same area where mine has the condenser. Do these connect to the electronic ignition module? This would explain why there is no place to connect the original black wire.

I'm going to need a Certificate of Authenticity. 😆

Bloats. That's perfect and funny.

I'm not losing it just a little slow.

CO, I would be more than happy to test your new “bloats”, but I need the temps to drop below the 117 it is today!! Let me know if you want to send my way.

We used Avery at work for race cars and it did a pretty good job around complex curves. I've always heard that the S30 headlight buckets are extremely difficult to get right. My buddy Dean owns an IMSA team and this was one of the most difficult wraps he ever had done due to the chrome. It wasn't as forgiving on the contours. He said that the "hips" right below the quarter windows was all but impossible to get smooth. The cars always looked like a Jiffy Pop container in that area when viewed up close. The S30 has a very similar contour there, so certain types of wrap might be an issue. I think think this one of the best looking race cars ever though (after the BRE cars of course). It's inspired by the Gentleman Jim WWII P51 Mustang livery.

FYI, The wrap I ended up using was manufactured by Vivid. My son and I wrapped a second car afterwards with Avery material which we liked better due to it's stretch. We made several mistakes with the 260Z and had to go with matching paint on the headlight buckets. Now that we have a little more experience, I think will rewrap the car next year in metal flake red and include the headlight buckets by using knifeless-cut tape. The advantages of a wrap for us is that we can change the color, we can do it ourselves, the color options and special affect vinyl are numerous. Note that the black stripe on my Z was done because I wasn't able to smooth the vinyl out without a wrinkle on the hood. I'm attributing this to Vivid's rigidity and hope to do the hood in one sheet when I go with Avery. Note that the air dam on the car was paint as was the headlight buckets. It is definitely a two person job. Avery offers group classes in car wrapping for around $900. At the end of the class, you get a $900 credit for their wrapping material. I might take their class next year so I can get some training beyond You Tube.

As an insider that works with camouflaged cars every day, I know it's frustrating to the public to see camo on cars that have had massive ad campaigns already like the Proto Z (I refuse to call it the 400Z as I'm still hoping Nissan calls it the 300Z). At this point, the production car will certainly be close, but likely different in many small ways when compared to the Proto Z. One of two outcomes will occur. Either people will like features of the Proto Z better and complain about how Nissan dumbed it down for production or they will think the production Z looks better and Nissan's big ad campaign will be outdated, It's a no-win situation, so the best thing to do is hide the final details until it's 100% ready. The main reason for the ongoing camo though is that pre-production cars are far from perfect. These cars are not built on the production assembly line and haven't gone through anything close to production quality checks, so if a car "looks" like a production car on the street, people will assume it is and their impression will be severely tarnished if they see poor panel gaps, missing trim, mismatched panel colors or 3D printed parts that aren't quite right. Anything that's plastic would not yet be grained. Manufacturers add graining to the tooling after they are sure the plastic parts will not need to change. In addition, many of these cars started life many, many months ago before the Proto Z reveal, so they never got a real paintjob. Most get a simple black or white paintjob just to cover the metal so they don't rust - think rattle can. They were camouflaged when built, so removing the stickers now would not only reveal terrible looking cars, but much of the paint would peel off with the sticker removal. Depending on the car's intended usage, some parts are never installed and others have been removed or cut up to fit test equipment. Prototypes are not meant to look good. They are built for testing. Some are powertrain calibration, others NVH, Vehicle Dynamics, brakes, etc. The engineers usually don't see what the production car will truly look like until the public reveal. We see the same ugly prototypes as the public.

Now on the opposite side of lucky a s s me here's my 240 original paint after a good buff out.

I'm a bored rattle trap that reads everything.

Logan Blackburn - IMSA @ Road Atlanta…

Here's a closer look at the chip from a different angle. Yes, it is on the lobe.