Mike

Go get yourself one of those commercial heat guns. My dad had one and I 'borrowed' it from him for this project. I just heated up the areas I wanted to scrape, and I used a putty knife/chisel to get the stuff to come up. It was a long and grueling task. But, I finally got it all up.

aspnetman, I hope you are going to come back here and keep us updated on your new purchase? I'm curious to see how you like it and see a few pictures!!

Ya, no doubt. That way you can keep the Z as well.

Great idea Doug! In fact, I haven't sent the latest club newsletter yet. So, I better get on top of that as well.

No doubt..... I don't have much experience with the Caprice, but, is that really a car that will keep you on the road? Here's my .02. If the Z option is totally out of the picture, then you have MANY cars to choose from. Don't just limit your options to the Caprice because your uncle wants to sell it to you. I don't know what the circumstances are around that Caprice, but, I can see two possibilities: 1- Uncle wants to get rid of it because it's taking up room at his house. The car is a POS and he can't sell it. So, he sells it to family. 2- The car is in good condition and he's doing you a favor by selling it to you cheap. And, the car will be a good daily driver. I would evaluate the circumstances involved and take a look at the big picture. I drove a Plymouth Scamp while I was in High School and just loved the reliability of that car (sorta like a Dodge Dart). It wasn't the greatest car, but, it was cheap and reliable. The Z sat in the garage while I saved my dollars to work on it. So, I think we are all trying to help you out (because you are a fellow Z owner) like we would our own family. I think we are probably trying to figure out, "Why a Caprice?" rather than not getting rid of the Z. And, with the latest message by Escanlon, we are also trying to give you the best of both worlds.

Hi guys, I might have misled you a little. I'm not really talking about domain names at this point because I think we already have two domains (240z.org and classicZcars.com). I'm really talking about the name of the club. The domains can follow the name and if we want to add another easy to use domain, no problem.... but, our name is important. We started out as the Internet 240z Club. Since then, we've grown to support all early Z's. So, how do we reflect that in our name? Other clubs support all Zcars and I don't think we need to saturate that market. We started out with the classic Z. And, most people know the Z because of the classic. That's why I think we'll grow tremendously. This is all my opinion of course. Maybe later we'll want to grow and support all Z's. But, do we really want to go that route? Maybe this should be a discussion about our future rather than just our name. What do you think?

I've been receiving some questions about an issue related to the actual name of our club. What is it?! My only answer is, I don't really know! So, let's talk about it a little. Let's come up with a great name for our club to make sure we all know who is who. We used to be known as the Internet 240z Club. But, with the advent of the 350z, our new domain registration, and the pure fact that most people on this site own a Classic Zcar... we have been moving toward the support of all EARLY zcars in general. Our new domain name classicZcars.com shows that we are in complete support of the early Z's. And, we've established a virtual line in the sand at the ZX. Therefore, all early Z's 240z, 260z, and 280z's become part of our club. Anyway, let's take this information and determine a proper title for our club. Here's what we have been known as in the past: 1) Internet 240z Club 2) Internet Z Club 3) Early Zcar Club 4) Classic Zcar Club 5) Classic Z Club So, I would like to take this time to get YOUR opinions. What do you think we should use? I will never get rid of our 240z.org domain, and this was all started with the 240z in mind. So, we must not forget our ROOTS. Please go ahead and vote, or if you wish, add your own ideas as a reply to this message. UPDATE: I just wanted to let everyone know that we aren't necessarily looking for new domain name ideas here. We are looking at a FORMAL vote of the club name. We have had a few names in the past and we should determine our final goal. Also note that there are plenty of other "ALL" Zcar clubs on the Internet. I don't think we want to become another Zcar club. We want to remain loyal to our classic roots of the early design. I could be totally wrong here, so, please let me know!

A chevy caprice? C'mon man. Get those U-joints fixed and get that thing back on the road. I grew up with a Z. You're right, it can be strapping at times, but, I don't regret any part of it.

CRASH TEST RECORDINGS (Special for Texans) The National Transportation Safety Board recently divulged they had covertly funded a project with the U.S. auto maker for the past five years, whereby the auto makers were installing black boxes in four-wheel drive pick-up trucks in an effort to determine, in fatal accidents, the circumstances in the last 15 seconds before the crash. They were surprised to find in 49 of the 50 states the last words of drivers in 74.7 percent of fatal crashes were, "Oh, SH**!" Only the state of Texas was different, where 92.3 percent of the final words were, "Hey Y'all, hold my beer and watch this!"

Your right about the heat dissipation. When the brakes get hot, it can can also affect the braking itself. And, poor braking isn't good when you're racing. I think they call it 'brake fade' or a similar term. I have such a problem with drums. They are more complicated and the design itself is just wizz poor. Not sure why it was even invented. The howstuffworks site says something to the effect of easier maintenance with drums. But, I find that hard to believe. I always have difficulty working on my drums because they are either seized tight or the pads don't wear evenly. I almost made the conversion to rear discs, but, I decided not to spend the extra money at the time. I was also scared to go disc because of the proportioning valve. I didn't want to cause a safety issue. Now that I found an adjustable proportioning valve, I might consider it.

Steve, I was also amazed to discover this on my motorcycles. For instance, my Hayabusa has two huge 12" cross-drilled discs on the front while the back only has a single 6"-8" disc. I've heard that the most important side is the front because it takes most of the force when you step on the brake. The rear is only applying enough force to keep you from going out of control. Here is a totally cool site to find out more with braking systems: http://www.howstuffworks.com/brake.htm Watch out for that site. It's addictive. Especially to those of us who like to take things apart just to see how they work.

This was given to me by someone in our technical document department at work: http://www.engrish.com

Sounds like an awesome car! Just keep buggin your dad and I'm sure he'll give in. Give him the puppy eyes thing.

Tell us a little bit about the situation. Did this occur as a result of some other work on your car? Or, did it start performing like this out of the blue? If you did some other work on the car... I'd say your answer might be to put the work back to the original configuration and try to see if that fixes your problem. But, if it just started doing this... replace all your bulbs and check the fuses again. In fact, don't just look at the fuse... pull it out and check it with an OHM meter.

Try one at a time. I find that if you get back to a working state... and start adding pieces slowly that you will find the problem.

Take a look at the image on the auction. It looks like the weatherstripping includes a metal channel that seems to clip in place like a continuous 'c-clamp' or something.

Has anyone seen this type of weatherstripping for a Z? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1832804540&r=0&t=0 Guy claims that it will work better than factory or aftermarket. Of COURSE he's gonna make that claim. Sheesh. Anyway, I really wonder if it would work. After installing my hatch weatherstripping over the weekend, I could go for something that's GLUELESS! That stuff gets everywhere! [m]

Ya, Abbie was a little shocked that I grabbed and lifted her on my shoulders.. Ya, I was mad that it broke in the first place... so, I had to jump up and down on the engine. I also did a similar action when I found out that it would take 6 weeks to get a new engine delivered!!

I'm the one with the glasses on.

Okay, here are the images from last Saturday when we pulled the engine. I sure miss that whole process. Glad I got to do it again. Now, it's just a waiting game for 6 weeks until the new engine arrives. http://www.240z.org/photopost/index.php?stype=1&thumb=1&si=Mikes+280z&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=500&user=4

Those tires look pretty good! What was the final size you decided to buy?

Hey guys, Now that I've got my engine out of the car, I wonder how I can deal with the A/C system. I'd like to continue using it and the compressor appears to be working fine. It spins easily and the whole system felt somewhat cold when I turned it on last time. But, I'm sure it needs to be re-charged. Since this system is so old, is it even possible to have it serviced? I seem to remember a time when you could service your own A/C. Is that still possible with an old system like this. I also remember that the government (here in the US) forced a change to a new type of A/C that was ozone friendly. I guess my main question is, can I do any of this work myself and where do I get the tools to work on it? I know I am supposed to 'capture' the old freon, but, how? And, can I just go buy a canister of new stuff?

Ya, I'm assuming that a majority of our membership is male. The editors of Sport Z Magazine were telling me that their audience is something like 95% male as well. I just wanted to know what the stats were like here on the site. I'm not going to use the information for anything in particular. It's just a curiosity thing. The voting booth is completely anonymous, so, there's no way to track the information back to a person anyway.