motorman7

Save and put all of those smog items in a nice box for any future owners. Without that stuff, you are probably lowering the value of your car by about $5K.

Pics from the paint shop

@Captain Obvious is the resident flat top expert. The rest of us bask in his shadow

Yes, that sounds about right, and I am guessing 200K or more by December. Earlier, the IMHE charts showed 0 deaths per day once we hit the end of June, which is why it was lower. Now they have it continually increasing which is what we will actually see . Personally, I don't think this goes away in the summer. I am guessing it will thin out a bit in the summer and come back again next winter. Also, I think we will see a higher peak than we did in mid-April on the charts. We moved the bell top to the right and a bit lower with the lock down. The peak will probably hit in early June and I am guessing that will be the top. I don't think the winter peak will be as high. For magazines, I do try and avoid extremes and politically charged headlines. Really, I just want to see the data. It's what I do. Wife calls me 'Spock' and 'Joe Friday', just the facts ma'm. Occasionally, I get political, but I do try and keep it to a minimum.

And here are the latest charts. Looks like we have the weekend swoon again.

Data really is just something to learn from and take action on. Data does not care if you like it or not. It is a tool to use to make decisions, providing information to help someone make the best choice. That being said, the data tells us that the age factor is critical, and not by a small amount. It is technically Orders of Magnitude (10X) different between someone who is 80 versus someone who is 50 versus someone who is 20. That's pretty crazy. I have a hard time thinking of things that show that great of a differential. Even turbocharger boost pressure wouldn't ramp up engine HP that fast. The other thing is: the data doesn't care whether you are locked down or not. This is deadly for the elderly no matter who you are, whether you are in New Zealand or Sweden. If you are over 50 (just to be safe), you want to avoid this at all costs. Ideally, you would probably want to secure all retirement homes and communities with a pretty hardcore lockdown. If you let anyone in, they need to be tested. All staff needs to be tested, etc. Those 50 and under? your odds are pretty good and probably not much different than the common flu. While Sweden may continue to take a lot of heat, they are just about done with the race and on the right side of the bell curve. I do not think that the US is there yet.....except for maybe NY and NJ. Below are the death by age charts for UK, Wuhan, Sweden, and the US.

I like option 1 as well...of course. Here is a thread that I blogged during a Flat top resto. I like the flat tops for the rarity and the fact that they are original to the car.

Good article on Sweden's response https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/coronavirus-crisis-sweden-refused-lockdown-other-countries-following/ I thought that this was an interesting quote: "Over half of Swedish deaths are in nursing homes. Of those who died, 90 percent were over 70 and half were over 86, with just 1 percent younger than 50. It is ironic that half of the Swedish deaths are in people over the age of 86. Life expectancy in Sweden is 83" https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107913/number-of-coronavirus-deaths-in-sweden-by-age-groups/ Yes, interesting chart. Most of the initial rise was New York and New Jersey and some of Michigan. As these three states seem to be beyond the peak and on their way down, other states are still ramping up, keeping the total new cases relatively flat. Would be nice if the summer heat would bring the curve down....we'll see.

Wow, that's a steal. Worth the price for the steel rims alone even with shipping. Hubcaps are easy to find, the steelies seem to be quite rare.

Selling here for almost $1800 https://jdm-car-parts.com/collections/wheel-nissan-datsun-fairlady-z-240z-260z-280z-280zx/products/wheel-hub-cap-set-for-1971-76-datsun-240z-260z-and-280z-nos?variant=786396845 Personally, hubcaps like you have shown in the pic I would say $1200-1400, if not more. Nice ones are getting very hard to find. Re-chromed ones usually to not turn out real well from what I have seen.

Yes, I noticed that for some states the daily toll is unchanged for several days, then there is a large uptick. Guess they are probably not reporting every day. Yesterday was another day with over 2000 US Covid deaths. While New York continues to drop, others are rising. New Jersey still has some high numbers and looks like the midwest is starting to increase. I added Illinois and Indiana charts because they seem to have a significant increase. I also changed the polynomial indicator to a 3rd order so that it follows the actual numbers a bit closer.

I once had a loud click on my '70 and it turned out to be the water pump (I thought it was perhaps a rod bearing). Turns out the bearings on the water pump were getting bad allowing the shaft to mis-align enough to have the impeller vanes hit the housing, causing the click.

The charts seem to be showing more new cases and more deaths over the last couple days per the mdmetrix charts. I believe these trends will continue for most of the US states for at least another month or two. As I said before, the better we quarantine, the longer we get to do it. The lockdown is pushing the peaks to the right. New York, Louisiana and New Jersey are on the right side of the peak and are in the best shape. I would also add Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming as states that are doing well. https://covid-19.mdmetrix.com/grid.html?list=death_curve https://covid-19.mdmetrix.com/grid.html?list=new_case_curve https://www.mdmetrix.com/covid-19-projections "Update for April 30, 2020 New York remains on its 20-day descent path for reported daily deaths from COVID-19. Louisiana also remains on a descent phase, with the last 18 days' data signals indicating a stable decline (albeit with a shallow downward slope). We’ll monitor closely as Louisiana begins "phase 1 reopening" this week. Encouragingly, Pennsylvania is now showing overlapping improvement signals for the state's reported daily deaths. Pennsylvania joins 18 other states that have been showing overlapping data signals indicating that they have moved away from the exponential growth curve for reported daily deaths: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. —Dr. Dan Low, Chief Medical Officer of MDmetrix" I still do not agree with the second paragraph assessment and think that Pennsylvania is not doing so well based on daily deaths. Their infection rate does however seem to be slightly slowing. I added them into my charts just to see how the data looks with the Polynomial indicator. Also, there was a spike in the US daily deaths that was again over 2000. Most of those (59%) were from New York, New Jersey and......Pennsylvania.

Yes, I stripped and painted the steering rack gloss black. I also lubed the assembly near the steering input and the rack portion at both ends. Then cycled the rack back and forth to work the grease in. Installed new boots. For the steering input shaft that attaches to the rack, I usually just clean and paint. The U-joint is typically in pretty good condition. If it were loose, I would replace it. Also, for what it is worth, I think the Japanese bearings on the Z cars are very high quality. Unfortunately most replacement bearings are Chinese and I don't think the quality is as good as the originals.

Unfortunately, I live in SoCal. You do not even want me to start referencing all of the articles up and down the state here of empty hospitals and furloughed doctors and nurses in this state. There is probably a balance in between the two states. As I have said before, New York is in the best position right now.

Unfortunately, that is true. We are artificially flattening the curve which I believe will do us more harm than good in the long run. We are running from the problem right now and our only hope is a 'silver bullet'. Funny thing, maybe it's smoking. Ayn Rand would be proud (All her 'hero' characters smoked). https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/scientists-must-discover-why-so-few-coronavirus-patients-are-smokers I still think Sweden is doing the best job as a country and their social distancing rules are pretty much spot on. I would add more mask usage though. Their curves are almost perfect and there is no need to start loosening restrictions as they are fairly loose already. The ones they have in place are reasonable and they are on the downside of the bell curve with large herd immunity. In the US, I think we are going to stay pretty flat and the drop off will happen VERY slowly. Here are some of Sweden's data and charts. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107913/number-of-coronavirus-deaths-in-sweden-by-age-groups/ Chart comment: After looking at this data of death by age group, I would be pretty pissed about the whole lockdown if I were 50 or under (More than I am already, if that could be possible). The death rate is incredibly low for those 50 and under. We knew this from the crappy China data. Unfortunately, the old folks running the show are penalizing the young for no reason, in my opinion. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1105753/cumulative-coronavirus-deaths-in-sweden/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102193/coronavirus-cases-development-in-sweden/ Also, I noticed IHME now has the total at over 74K. That number is low. We will hit pretty close to 100K......unless we all start smoking maybe? https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america Also, new cases are rising in most of the states. I think it's because people are getting antsy and tired of the lockdown. https://covid-19.mdmetrix.com/grid.html?list=new_case_curve Check out the right side of the curves. Most are increasing and this is daily data, not cumulative. https://www.mdmetrix.com/covid-19-projections "Update for April 28, 2020 New York remains on its 18-day descent path for reported daily deaths from COVID-19. Louisiana also has entered a descent phase, with the last 16 days' data signals indicating a stable decline (albeit with a shallow downward slope). We’ll monitor closely as Louisiana begins "phase 1 reopening" this week. Encouragingly, 18 additional states continue to show overlapping data signals indicating that they have moved away from the exponential growth curve for reported daily deaths and are now on an extended plateau: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. —Dr. Dan Low, Chief Medical Officer of MDmetrixI " I agree with the first paragraph and would add New Jersey to that list. I still contend that the second paragraph is badly mistaken. These have been artificially flattened and the initial exponential is no longer valid. The data points on the far right for new cases are increasing in many of those states the Dr listed. That typically means more deaths.

Looks like we may be over the top now and on the down side of the bell curve as a nation. New York is definitely on the down side, maybe California? There are still a few states where the numbers are increasing, but most seem to be tailing off, which is a good sign. Maybe the warmer weather will help. Will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming weeks. People are getting a little tired of the quarantine and lack of jobs/money.

Interesting assessment. While I whole-heartedly agree with the New York comment and would also throw New jersey into that same category and maybe Louisiana, I do not agree with some of the 15 states that he has mentioned as being 'Encouraging'. California, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin charts look terrible for both new infections and death. On the right side of the charts for these states, the numbers are all going up, and some are at or near their all time highs for new infections and deaths (and these will most likely continue up). The reason that these states have data points to the right of the red exponential curve was because of the lockdown. The lockdown artificially flattened the red exponential curve and moved the exponential lift to the right. Now these states are continuing along with an increasing trajectory, only they have shifted the exponential to the right ( and crushed their economy in the meantime). This is going to get much worse for the states I noted above. They should really re-plot the red line for all of the charts. New York and New Jersey are in the best shape right now. They are on the right side of the bell curve, have the largest herd immunity, and have fought the war. The other governors of the states I noted above are going to have to get off their PS4 'Call of Duty' Games and start fighting the real battle.

I have never used a tumbler. Usually I use the wire wheel on my bench grinder for a light cleaning. Also, I have found that platers differ in what they will do prior to plating your parts. The plating shop just down the road here requires that I have all the parts stripped and in very good shape before plating, so it is a lot of work. Also, I think their finish is a bit too dark and not enough shine or rainbow. The place I use in Phoenix is great and I do very little prep on the parts. I just wire wheel the heavily rusted items and parts with paint on them. I am pretty sure that they tumble and clean the parts before plating. I noticed the the rubber on some of the parts, like the oil pressure cable support on the engine mount, or the speedo cable supports have the rubber pretty beaten up, and almost falling off. I just re-dip those parts in the liquid plastic stuff. The finish on the parts is just about perfect.

The one video looks like the pump is working well. Typically, I will disconnect one of the hoses going to the carb float bowls to see if fuel is pumping out. That will tell you if the pump is working. Put a rag or cup under hose to catch the fuel.

Yes, I think the face masks and social distancing should be required by law. No mask, no service. Also think we need to start opening up in most regions. Major cities definitely need to be more measured in opening up and use caution. Smaller cities should open up, again, with mandatory PPE and distancing. I think the whole testing thing is a stall tactic and a waste of time. If you get tested, then get infected by an asymptomatic on the way home or in the following day or two, it does you no good.

And here's another thing that happens when we are so myopically focused on Covid that we let everything else fall by the wayside. https://www.yahoo.com/news/vaccine-rates-drop-dangerously-parents-192710274.html I really think we are out of control here and making a lot of bad decisions. I think Sweden will come out smelling like a rose and the rest of us will be looking pretty dumb. Only time will tell.

Here is the latest chart of the US Covid deaths. Looks like the peak may have been reached, but I think the slope down is going to be a long one. I also plotted the charts for New York and California. New York's actually looks very good, nice bell top and tapering off on the right. California looks like it is just getting started, pretty scary really. I think several months from now Cuomo will look like a hero and Newsom, not so much. This site referenced previously by @Zed Head has some nice state by state charts. Some these states on the down side of the bell curve should start opening up. Those still not reaching their peak are a concern. https://covid-19.mdmetrix.com/grid.html?list=new_case_curve

Latest chart update. New Yorks numbers are still toggling up and down for some reason. Curve looks to finally be leveling off a bit. Will see if things stay that way.

More pics from the body shop. It is really getting pretty close now. Nice to see.