tlorber

I don't think anyone here intends to be cruel. Keep in mind that we own these car as well. The reality is that Z's are not worth a heck of a lot even to us here-maybe some day, but just not now. The good part is that we can enjoy fun cars at a relatively low budget. Compare parts prices to those of 911's and you'll see that acquisition cost is only one part of the equation. That being said, you should modify the car to suit your tastes, and not those of some prospective buyer years down the road.

Diseazd, was that skylight vault put in your garage so that you could get the car on the lift? Nice work!

I was getting quotes around $600 when I was looking to have mine redone. I bought a kit for $120 and did it myself. If you are having a lot of these done it might be a good plan to try it yourself and save that money many times over. There were not may specialized tools required. Maybe a gear puller, brass drift and a large wrench for the rear locknut.

I used these guys for my tach. It has worked great ever since. http://www.nhspeedometer.com/

I also put in Miata seats. The pic above is much clearer than mine so I won't bother posting. I spray died mine black, since most of them are a faded grey by now. They hold you in place SO much better than stock and the dimensions are very close-slightly narrower than stock. I used the rails off the Miata seats (cut off the ends and re-drilled). The driver's side will drop into existing holes. Passenger side of the car had to be drilled to accomodate the rail width. I also added a 1" aluminum shim in the rear to compensate for the deep bucket of the seat. They look like they were made for the car. $44.00 from the wrecking yard, 2x$8.00 for the spray die and a couple of bolts and you're good to go.

Yeah, but what about a 5 speed? (just tryin' to wizz the English bloke off) Seriously though, think about all the B.S. that later came on the car for emissions. Perhaps with an overdrive, mileage would have been high enough to skate out of some of that garbage. How about a Mr. Fusion?

Local Craigs List will give you a pretty good idea of Seller expectations.

I agree with the above. Other than the K&N filters, there is nothing there to improve performance. For around $45.00 you can get a K&N for the stock box AND keep the blowby tube in the air filter.

First off, I assume there is no spare for the band aid? I have 215 60 14's on my car that have no interference issues. I'm taking them off and replacing the wheels/tires with 205 60 15's which appear to be almost the exact outer diameter. In both cases the wheels are 7" wide, and obviously the wheel width will limit the tire width. I think 195's are a bit narrow if you need any kind of performance, and 65 side walls are a bit tall = sidewall flex.

Oh yeah, I forgot, why the deuce did they not put a 5 speed in the thing? My '69 roadster has one, so they clearly had the engineering and parts. I mean, how much would that have added to the price? That would have allowed them to put in a bit shorter gearing in the rear end.

Those things are so damn strong that my guess is that if you glued them to the underside of the (fiberglass) headlight scoop and to the corresponding spot on the cover, they would probably hold. However, I'd test it out first before committing.

Cross flow head, more bucket to the stock seats to keep you in place better.

This is a link to the Eastwood site. They have a short video clip . I'm sure you could also search on You Tube and get some tips. http://www.eastwood.com/engine-porting-kit.html

I had the problem with new hoses on my carbs as well. I went back to the old ones which were more rigid. Do you have a spare set of carbs that you could swap in just for sh#Ts & grins? That could at least remove one variable.

Julio, its a shame that you may have to do that drive all over again.

Thanks for the link. I had a great time down there with my family. Some awesome cars and great drivers and we will definitely be going back next year. I hope to find more videos of the event.

I would say that anything that is easily reversible should by no means be considered a molestation. I'm not saying that the converse is necessarily true. Simply that, if you do an upgrade that you like (and scores of them exist for these cars) but you decide to show the car (god forbid) you can always take it back to stock. Given the value of these cars, or lack thereof, they should be driven and not trailered or put in a glass case. Maybe someday when my car is actually worth something, I'll go stuff all the beautiful smog equipment back on, de-tune the motor and slopen up the suspension.

Can't tell where the weld was. Mind you, this is not as clean as the eurotube, but much nicer than stock with all of the smog stuff-I left the threaded ports in and plugged with alan screws. This was a cheaper and easier option than replacing linkages and the balance tube.

You definitely have a lot of slop in the pinion/rack area. Have you tightened up the lash adjustment?

I would say I did most of the cutting and grinding before the weld so that I knew what the contour should be. Obviously the welded area will need to be sanded and polished as well.

Ferret, don't think you're falling on deaf ears here. I just can't do it this weekend. I'm taking the family down to Coronado to watch the speed fest. I'll have to catch the next one-car should be in and out of the body shop by then. Please take video if you can.

I took the one from my '73 and cut the extra "lobe" off the bottom, along with some of the brackets on the top, (I used a combination of a band saw and angle grinder). There was a small hole that I had to have welded up where the egr valve was. It was a lot of grinding, sanding and polishing but it came out nice.

Julio, I have the original '73 lever in my 5 speed. I had about 1.5" taken off the lever and then had it rethreaded. Not all machinists want to chuck this lever up in the lathe since it is bent and is therefore more difficult to mill than a straight one. However I found a local guy that did it for $40.00. I really like the current throw-much shorter than stock but nowhere near as quick as a modern day Z.

These trannies only weigh around 60-70 lbs. I would have a few extra pieces of 4x4 under the car while you are there, because you WILL need to adjust height while you are engaging the input shaft with the crank. If you have a radiator shroud you may want to take it off. As stated above, you need to support the rear of the motor with a jack and you will need to adjust the jack at times to change the inclination of the motor for alignment. When you do this, the fan can hit the shroud, and possibly the radiator. Keep an eye on the area up front as you adjust the jack. I paid around $150.00 for the clutch disk, pressure plate, throwout bearing and alignment tool. You can decide whether its worth it or not to replace these depending upon the condition of the existing one.

Thank you all for the responses. I will be looking out for these cars in person to compare the colors.