Leaderboard

Well I like the way they ride . I’m running about a 1/4 turn out for all these wonderful roads around here . The ride is decent and can be made softer than my non- adjustable KYB’s - but just a smidge . I take a long drive tomorrow so I will really give them some miles . Nice curvy Indiana roads . I’m taking my friend gearhead with me for the ride . Actually I’ll have two passengers l but cranky arse has to stay in the back .

Well I can’t keep up with what I post anymore . The 3.2 is now running with the MN47 head again . Since the last post I had put miles on the p90 while I was fixing a 71 for a customer . Meanwhile the MN head got new Manely valves and bronze guides . I swapped it back I’m with the proper head gasket thickness and should be back to 10.5:1 . Cylinder pressure is around 220 with compression tester . Pistons were pretty much broke in , so just a tune and start flogging . I managed a quick 0-60 time of 4.77 seconds . This is a beast motor . It’s amazing how hard it pulls even in 4h gear . Dyno appointment is in November - everyone is booked up until then . 8B4867CC-29D6-428F-A1D7-5F72482973E3.MP4

I saw a mock up of a front grill mod that breaks up the big black square grill that I think improves the look of the front.

There's effectively no copyright on the original Kobe Seiko design, and several different companies have made replicas over the last 50 years. You cannot label or market them as Kobe Seiko items, that's all. The problem here is effectively piracy of M-Speed's IP software, molds and R&D. We all know how many of these Chinese factories operate, and to buy product from them - which others have invested time, know-how and money to - is effectively encouraging piracy. If anybody wanted these wheels, they were freely available for the last two years from M-Speed Japan at a price which reflected the time and expense in setting such a project up. Buying via the back door is bad for all of us in the long run.

@gnosez and I have corresponded about this bodyshell. As far as I'm concerned, everything rings true.

We did some brainstorming, including heaving the early one remolded, but that would be way to expensive, they will only do it from at least a 1000 pieces. So I decided to modify the later one, back to the early one. I think it worked out. I will test it to make sure, just waiting for the strap to come in first. I cut the purple, and added to red, so the " slope " is the same, and the holes are on the same spot as the early one. With the purple cut out, you can now put the M12 nut under there. I could not just simply twist the mount 180 because that would change the angle.. so this was the only way. Welded the mount with the rubber part of it submerged in some water, so it wouldn't melt..

I am fortunate to have this tire clamp for my 1970 Nissan Fairlady Z.

Please reply to this forum post if you are experiencing any issues (or just want to make comments). Thank you for your patience everyone. Update took approx 48 hours, and I did manage to get some sleep. Mike

Just one?

One day, when I’m state side, I really must buy you a beer!! [emoji1787]

For plating, I think every place is different. I like Sav-On in Phoenix, but they do have their short comings. Seems like they tumble clean the parts, so the plastic and rubber can get a little beat up. That needs to be taken into consideration. Some platers require that you do all of the cleaning and they just plate. That is probably a bit easier on the rubber and plastic. Also, you have to watch out for parts with cavities. I usually bag those separately and send a note along to make sure the parts are well dried before shipping. For flexible brake hoses, I just buy new ones since they are pretty cheap. Always good to have brake lines in good condition. Got the door sound deadening in and windows with window frames. Also installed headliner and pillar vinyl. Will install windshield today.

He's conflicted it seems? There was a lot of those movies though...

Man's got to know his limitations.

I bought this car for Mrs. Racer 1.0 back in 1992 for $2,000. When we divorced she said she didn't want it, and demanded I pay her for it. I pointed out the car was bought with money out of my pocket, and the title was in my name, and I would not be giving her anything for the car, and that was that. I drove the car off and on until 1998, parking it because the oil consumption was excessive, and at the time I was trying to defend a championship in my race Z. So the car sat in the back corner of the shop, collecting dust. Fast forward to this past August. I'm at work, and my manager calls me, says I have to go home. Contact tracing had resulting in me being identified as being at risk to Covid19. Not wanting to waste a two week paid "vacation", I decided to clean up the shop a bit and see how the old Z was doing. I charged the battery overnight, and the car reluctantly came to life, 22 year old gas and all. Being all original, and numbers matching, I won't be making any changes that cannot be returned to the as new configuration. But in the interim I plan to replace the tired engine with one of the many others I have lying about, and rebuild the original as time and money allow. The car as I bought it in 1992 (alongside my race car): Double Datsuns by Racer, on Flickr Brown Z Red Z by Racer, on Flickr And after sitting in the corner of the shop after 22 years, dust, dirt, overspray (I painted a tractor and even though I had a makeshift spray booth, overspray went everywhere) and spider poop. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr Not easy to see through 22 years of dirt. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr I washed it. Notice the red haze of overspray. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr After the first pass around with rubbing compound and a buffer. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr And after about 20 passes around the car. I put some Panasport wheels on it that were on a 280Z parts car I had out back. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr And finally a coat of Zymol wax. Sunlight On The Z by Racer, on Flickr Sunlight On The Z by Racer, on Flickr Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr Now for some mechanical work. I am going to change the car over to a manual tranny. These cars should never have had automatics. I also have new carpet, weatherstripping, and interior plastic panels to change out. Stay tuned. Racer

Oops! Sorry! Memory like a goldfish. Well that, and I kinda wander in and out of on-line consciousness. I'll put something together. I just took some pics.

So your one passenger is really cranky, and the other is really shifty?

Some L series piston porn for your Thursday viewing pleasure. Originally the ceramic coating had some issues. I reached out to the company eagle suggested and they fixed them for me. Much better coating job. Contact IA coatings: https://www.facebook.com/iacoatings/

Usually. Actually it stands for Previous Owner. The ignition module is down by the fuse box in the cabin. Passenger side (right side). You might have to dig in to that ignition switch. Who knows what you'll find, considering what's in the engine bay.

These cheapo one man bleeders work remarkably well for me. My $.03

Center exhaust is very difficult to pull off... and Honda did not do that one right.. lol I will never buy a fully electric car, it needs to have an engine backup (hybrid) otherwise I'd be sitting somewhere begging for a ride. Ever run your phone out of battery because you forgot to charge it? Yeah... Of course you have the same issue with running out of gas, but, at least you can pull over somewhere and fill up in less than 10 minutes. An electric car you'd be sitting there for an hour or more...

So little update but I’m excited about this one! My car didn’t have an oem steering wheel, I know.... who the hell doesn’t want the oem steering wheel?! It’s gorgeus! Was looking into steering wheels and was interested in the jdm comp steering wheels msa sell, after talking to a few people who didn’t like them, it didn’t seem worth the amount of money + shipping costs. So after looking at the prices of oem wheels in the US and picking my jaw up off the ground....I managed to source a pre loved oem steering wheel from my local z guy! For a very reasonable price too! Here it is! Little rough, but with a bit of TLC should come out nice! Ryan

I agree completely. And yet, we are dealing with a shift in consumer ethics that had/has no problem with bypassing copyrights to illegally download music and movies and photos. It seems like the transition from physical product (e.g. vinyl record) to digital product (in music, this was iterative: cassette tape to CD to online digital) has made people decide that the product is virtual, so the ownership is virtual/meaningless too. Complicated issue. Early days.

Never underestimate the greatest thing since sliced bread - the placebo effect. All that smoke MUST be beneficial. It works for me. ?

For plating, I try to keep everything as factory stock original as possible in regard to yellow and silver. I am sure on some items I may be incorrect, but it is my best attempt to get things right. I know the earlier Z's had a little more silver items than the later Z's, so not really sure at what times the changes took place. I did notice at the 2019 ZCON, most judges had no idea what was correct so I wasn't marked off for any plating discrepancies. However, Jim Fredericks was there and was able to teach me a bit on some items that were not correct, so I try and learn from those instances. For the half shafts, since most of the original black paint is usually gone, I typically just strip and clear coat. Sometimes the metal is stained so I paint with flat aluminum and clear or plain aluminum and matte clear. I know they are supposed to be black, but it gets kind of boring under there with everything being black. So, I do take a bit of artistic license on the half shaft, as well as the back of the differential which should also be black. For the trans case, I hit it with the fiber wheel and clear coat. Wire wheels usually scratch too much. Again, if the housing is pretty stained I will paint with flat aluminum then clear coat. Also, for the valve cover, I now just clean with steel wool and phosphoric acid (wear gloves and goggles). After the cleaning, I use a little Maguires aluminum polish just as a preservative. I prefer the light bead blast look, but got dinged for that at ZCON. Ideally, I should probably look into vapor blasting for the cover. Rich

In a fire bad enough to ignite Elektron Magnesium wheels (which the original Kobe Seiko wheels were made from) on an S30-series Z, the fumes from the burning interior plastics and vinyl would kill you first. M-Speed's replicas are made from Aluminium alloy.

For what it’s worth, I bought one from Rockauto to go with my L28 transplant 3 years ago (even though the original was still OK). It had a Bosch sticker on it but having bought lots of Bosch kit for my other cars, i could tell that it clearly wasn’t re-manufactured by Bosch itself. It cost me less than half the price of the others being sold by the usual Z suppliers and hasn’t missed a beat yet. I have given it a lot of abuse too. If I had your dilemma, and didn’t want to spend silly money on one, I would opt for the AC Delco brand out of the ones listed on RA. On RA you often find alternate parts numbers listed, see below:

It's not just the college kids. It's the delay in symptoms, and the asymptomatic part that is the big problem. If people would just die as soon as they get it, life would be so much more sensible. That's what the scientists should be working on. An injection that amplifies the effects. Get the injection and you can go do what you want. Because you'll die as soon as you get COVID-19. You won't be able to spread it. All damage contained to you. They could call it the the Freedom Injection. https://www.yahoo.com/news/tens-thousands-motorcycle-enthusiasts-traveled-153930782.html

I took today off from work to recover from the ZCON trip, so I gave the 260Z a bath and used some C2 ceramic on it.

Even in stock configuration with no mods the Z's gas tank placement makes a Pinto seem like a Volvo. But you're right about the brake kits, a lot of variables going on there.

More progress. Got the drivetrain completely installed along with the E-brake and rear hatch. Also installed the manifolds and carbs along with radiator and fan.

Well, I took yall's advice and started it up this afternoon. Oil pressure jumped to the middle of the gauge (70PSI?) almost immediately. I started another thread here if anyone's interested in following along with the fun. FYI before I started the engine I also tried connecting a mechanical pressure gauge in place of the sender. After cranking for a few seconds, I didn't even get a blip on the gauge. I then just pulled out the gauge and put my thumb over the hole and saw a little squirt out where I didn't press hard enough. That was good enough for me, and starting it up was definitely the right decision. @Captain Obvious I'd still love a rundown of how the gauges work if you're up for it.

Recently discussed. 100% new. Not cheap, not stock looking. Likely to last forever and not fail at the whim of the rebuilt junk suppliers. “Oh we are so sorry the fifth one in a row failed on your, here’s another! Be happy!” Do I have to bring up the Podunk Kansas story again? https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/1114/category/218 They have alternators as well. Get a stock looking 120 Amp one wire and never look back again.

and great minds think alike HS30-H 😄

So you are Albrecht on the other forum. That wasn't clear. Since you're a member over there you probably don't know that a non-member can't click on those photos to enlarge them. An error message pops up about "you must be logged in to do that". So, you can't see the copyright. And it's not clear that Albrecht took the pictures. "He" just posted them without explanation. No offense. A person could assume and suppose but that's what's happening with the Bob Sharp story. With this new information though, it seems that "at least 20 years ago", the shell was at Fourways with no engine in it. So, who installed the engine, and the other parts, and when? I like a good puzzle, and a good story, and I don't think that any new knowledge is going to hurt the OP's odds of selling the shell and parts.

Did someone forget to start a "What I Did To My Z Today" for 2020? *Edit* Never mind. Didn't see it way down below all the pinned threads. Carry on, nothing to see here.

Late to this and I know you wanted all original but I took my diff in and out about 4 different times trying to get something to work. I had a lot of extra late model parts so I used a later transverse link mount, later mustache bar and a RT Mount...but I had to add a bracket to the RT Mount towards the back so the bushing wouldn’t fall directly on top of the front yoke of the diff. Welded a piece of channel on the RT Mount and moved the bushing back about 3 inches and all is well. I also had the late model drive shaft so I’m hoping that makes up the difference.

Start as far away from master cylinder and work to shortest on bleeding. I use the method described in my 1963 service manual: put a rubber hose on the bleed screw into a bottle with a little brake fluid. Open bleed screw, pump the brakes a few times till the fluid has no bubbles in it. Leave pedal all the way to the floor, tighten bleed screw. Repeat 3 more cylinders. Keep master full, if you run it out, start all over.

The scan for the 75 is missing sections. Download the 76 as well.

The threads on the valve itself are 1/8 NPT. You would either need to get an adapter that converts that to the metric fittings on the Z lines or remake the lines with the appropriate fittings. They actually sell a version with SAE adapters included. You can find it here: https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Motors-Brake-Proportioning-Valve-Kit-With-Fittings,387281.html As far as mounting it, I attached a 1/8 inch aluminum "plate" to the side of the valve and drilled and tapped a hole in that plate. I then used a small right angle bracket that attaches to the valve in the new tapped hole and the other side of the right angle bracket goes into the original tapped hole on the firewall that used to hold the OEM valve. You can see the "plate" that I added in the last picture that I posted above. Hope that helps. Mike.

I guess my question on all of this is what is M speeds agreement with the manufacturer? is there a clear cut line that forbids the manufacturer from selling these through another venue. Is approval required for the factory to sell these are not. This has been one of the problems with mainland manufacturing for some time. They require foreigners to build plants with domestic contractors and domestic engineers. Then they go down the road and build a duplicate plant to generate copy cat products. This was a huge problem with top level golf clubs for a while, as an example

According to Randy, the ceramic coating is improved with each application. I don't know about filling surface imperfections. I'm pretty sure it won't show up as white where you missing buffing the way wax does.

I decided I hate the Sound of my compressor. Plus it is a pile of junk. I splurged and bought a rotary screw Schulz 4008. Which is a pretty small footprint 60 gallon 7.5hp unit 69db and 25 cfm. All the larger compressors that could handle the cfm were huge. To run vapor rig you really need a minimum of 18cfm. But really 25cfm. Hopefully this is the last compressor I have to buy in my life.

Velocity stacks are made and should be shipping to me this week. ITB's are torqued and the nturally aspirated linkage is installed along with the TPS. The wheels fit (barely) with the 20mm spacers. You can hardly fit a business card between the back of the spoke and the caliper. These tires are too wide as well so will be able to get pretty low with the 195's. Got the diff and axles in as well. First day in a long time working on the car where everything just went as planned.

Wow this came up so good after a bit of TLC! I was pleasantly surprised.

Saw this on youtube today. There was a lot more people there than I expected.

While the doors are off, I finished prepping the insides for spray on sound dampening material. I had some sitting in storage for something like 15 years? And I was shocked to open it up and see it was still usable. I don't think this stuff is sold anymore under this name, but I suspect it is the same as the Spectrum product I bought from Second Skin in this second pic. We'll find out soon enough as I spray more of the inner panels of the car. Pictures showing inside of the doors before spraying the sound deadener. I sandblasted a few spots I could reach to get rid of surface rust. Interestingly, there is bare metal that didn't even have full surface rust inside the door: After spraying the sound deadener. When the sound deadener is fully applied to the car and the truck bed liner underneath, it will have substantial reduction in Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) compared to stock. The doors will have a very different sound and feel than stock ones. I think it will be quite a noticeable improvement around the whole car.

I made some good progress yesterday. As always, clicking on the image will give you a larger picture. Rosette welds on inner panel and finish grinding on wheel house repair area, marking out where to cut on the rocker curved surface: Trimming replacement rocker piece to fit (no overlapping joints): Fit is decent. After removal of the area being replaced, I took some pics showing the inside of the rocker: Inside the rocker looks very good. Starting to tack the new panel in: Several angles: Continuing to weld all the way around: Just a small spot that needed to be closed: Grind down welds - finish work: More rosette welds where needed. Additionally, I used a small amount of fiberglass body filler in a few strategic areas. Fiberglass body filler is 100% waterproof. And I learned recently that it is a good idea to use it on certain weld seams like these to fill tiny holes that are present after welding and grinding down. Additionally, I wanted to fill the pitting and couple of holes in the rocker panel in the area that I did not replace. Finish repair of inner panels in red oxide primer. Final fitting of outer replacement panel. Taking time here to get the fit dead on is really important. The finished result after grinding down the welds will come out much better if old to new panel alignment is 100% level and weld gaps are present but don't exceed 1 mm. New to old panel fit is good. The gap got wider than optimum in a couple of areas (middle photo): Front edge fit. Door gap in corner corrected for better gap consistency: There isn't much more welding and finish grinding to do here to complete this part of the project. Body work elsewhere on the panels is probably about 75% at a guess. I am going to be spraying the whole thing and all loose panels in epoxy primer one more time, then the high build primer, and started guide coat sanding.

Glad to see they are back. I actually didn't do anything. PB had a message on their front page about it but had not thought about it tonight. If it happens again I will re-create the post as I have all of the pictures backed up.