TomoHawk

There is one important thing missing from the rules; the protocol the judges themselves must use when judging the cars. At any car show- judged or not- no one may touch the cars without permission from the owner. That includes the judges at a judged show. Even the judges at a concours d'elegance show will do that. They will look carefully, or closely at a car and even stick their head in the window (if it's open) but they will not touch the car without first asking the owner. Nor will they get in or sit in a car to test controls ( brakes, lights, glove box, etc.) ) Even then, with permission, a judge (like at a concours de'elegence) will use clean (white) gloves to do things like open a door or poke into an exhaust tip. Usually the owner will be asked to open the door, bonnet, or boot. The judge will ask the owner to test the controls for them and they will note the result. For a Z meet, it might be necessary for a judge to look far over the engine, and to support himself. In that case, permission and a soft, clean cloth (a terry cloth towel) is appropriate. There is no reason that judges at a Z meet, even a ZCCA meet, should be handling things on the cars, without permission or even some clean gloves or a clean cloth. There may be more things the judges should be doing (or not) while looking at the cars. There's no reason why those things couldn't be collected to produce a judges addendum, to be incorporated into the next rules revision. thxZ

I looked into the Energy Suspension urethane 280Z kit, and it doesn't seem to include the strut isolators. Is it necessary to purchas those separately, or request them when ordering the kit? thxZ

What is the feature called, that you are referring to? Perhaps I can contact the manufacturer to see if you can replace the 'Hello' message with Datsun or something? If the radio is idle, it will display the radio frequency, or CD or AUX, the MP3 tag, or whatever, but there has never been anything like we saw earlier in this thread. thxZ.

My receiver is only about a year old. When I was researching the receivers, only the high-end ones had stuff like call letter display, song names, and such. I have seen this since a few years ago on cars like Land Rover (luxury models,) Cadillacs & Lincolns (with the premium sound system,) and a couple luxury Asian models.

Nope. I must program in the call letters myself. You will see both the frequency (ex. 98.5) and call letters if you do, or just the frequency if you don't.

The only thing AFAIK that I can prpgram on mine is the station call letters, like WMMS. O L...

How did you get the display to read DATSUN?

What does recording the carby sounds have to do with increased the intake flow? thxZ

Make sure all the guage connectors are properly seated.

Too bad you couldn't maket to ZCON 2008. We had 6 sweaters that were sautographed by mr. K! Someone else has them now.

With so many mechanically-minded people or macine-equipped here, it's a wonder that no one has used a CNC machine or similar to make some dies to stamp out key blanks.

There was a poster like that for sale at ZCON 2008. It was signed, and I don't think it was sold.

It depends on the car & year. On my 280Z, there is a fibreboard lid over the spare tire area with hinges, and the carpet covers the entire rear deck area. It's the same type of csrpet that the front area has (loop pile.)

Were you guys watching the rearview mirror?

The subject here is for others to share any tips or experience they've using the plating kit successfully. I'm not the only one to have one, and some day or someone else will probably need to know things to be successfull too. There is always room for more tips.

that is why I am coating them now, but that is off the subject.

I have to speak from my own experience. EVERY exposed bolt on the exterior of my car has no protective coating on it. Only the chromed or painted ones in side the car are still OK, and that is why I am starting the plating process. Maybe it was like that (coated with something protective) 30 years ago, but not after 100,000+ miles.

I would go for a weather-proof type connector, like the rubber trailer connectors. It's not oe-style either, but it seems like there's little choice unless you can get something from an old VW perhaps, from a JY. Even then, a little dielectric grease will help too.

On my '78, there are two brackets spefically sttached, with holes for lifting hooks. One is on the front end of the cylinder head, above the alternator, and the other on the other end above the #6 intake port.

Most every fastener I've seen on an S30 doesn't have any kind of protecting finish- they're all just uncoated steel, so they rust. And since most car shows or cruises you'll go to have zero Z people, besides you, they'll all think your car is a rust bucket, when you know it's quite appropriate to have the oxide coating on just about everything. I've even had judges refuse to judge my car becuse "it's old and hasn't been restored or cleaned" meaning everything isn't either chrome-plated or highly polished. I once had a '78 that was a Cleveland car. It was so rusted the radiator support was mostly gone, the floors were almost missing, and every bolt under the car or under the hood was rusted solid & broke when turned. It was only 8 years old with 40,000 miles, but the wires were nearly new-looking tho. I didn't know that much about S30 back then. Hopefully, you don't have a salt sitution that affects your Z. Besides some polishing or plating, I even remove what bolts I can just to give the threads some antiseize. Eventually, everything will get to be or have to be seriviced, so a little rust prevention now will save lots of drilling & tapping later. There's never a dumb question Sarah. thxZ

And the Eastwood forum: http://forum.eastwood.com/

I've had no problems so far, but I always do some research before starting something new. I tried it using a friends equipment, and would like to have success myself. ThxZ for the tip on the other forums- I've been through the Caswell website but didn't notice a forum, and would have not thought that they had there own Q&A systems. I'll check into it later. The only real questions on my mind is what to plate or polish! Polish/buff: thermostat housing coolant inlet & outlet plate & buff: hose clamps rusty OE screws & bolts miscelaneous brackets alternator pulley & bracket (silver caliper paint?) thxZ

The electrode is a Tin-Zinc alloy, Dave.

It is, but it depends on local laws. Each city can decide for themselves, but I think it ought to be a national law, like the smoking ban. Apparently, only the law-abiding people refrain from using the cell phones while driving; the other 95% of drivers think they are good enough drivers to do both. You see such drivers in the evening TV new almost every day now.

Has anyone tried out the Eastwood Tin-Zinc Plating kit? I got one after plating some hose clamps using a friend's kit. The clamps came out nice, and looked almost as good as new. I tried it myself on a intake vacuum fitting, and it wasn't as shiney; maybe I didn't use enough brake cleaner and it wasn't clean enough. I would like to ask people who have used it successfully for tips. I was planning on plating screw heads, hose clamps and all those rusty water fittings after de-rusting. thxZ