Captain Obvious

You can say "Well you've made a perfect arse of yourself tonight. But you can't say Hey... Let's go get some arse!" If I'm remembering correctly, here's the classic original seven from the late great George Carlin: $^!#, wizz, ****, c***, chickenlicker, mother****er, and tits. And just because I like them... Tater-tits. Let's see how many of those make it through!

I've seen the same thing with the urethane bushings. Seems like the people who make those things should be able to figure out how wide to make the bushings and how long to make the internal spacer tube so they work right and don't require excessive crush. Once on my 300ZX I had to use poly (because I needed aftermarket camber adjustment) and I had to remake the spacer tubes myself so they would control the bushing crush a little. The bushings fit snug between the ears (at stock width) before the bolt was tightened, but bound up with the bolt tight. In other words, the bushing width was good, but the spacer tube was too short causing the ears to be pulled in until they were crushing the poly enough to squeeze inward to contact the spacer tube. I'm no suspension guy, but it seems you need some crush on the poly. Just enough to insure no play and maybe a tiny bit more, but certainly not so much as to introduce too much rotating friction.

. Those kinds of conversations happen a lot at my place as I'm often using items for purposes different than their mainstream intent.

I'm guessing that Mike recently had to hunt up and engage the censure controls for the site and may have swung the pendulum a little to the conservative side? Too bad... I find the ** stuff distracting. No doubt a result of the recent unmentionable ZX thread with lots of bad language. I understand the why, I just wish it was unnecessary.

I've also heard they removed them on the 280. So my question is... Did they seal the hatch hinges in some OTHER way on the 280, or are they just letting them rust?

Fantastic idea!! My work here is done. Mission accomplished.

Wow. Glad you caught that one before it was too late! I don't remember the last time I had that sick to the pit of your stomach feeling when you realize that you just screwed up royal and it's irreparable. No no no no no no no nobody's fault but mine! I think the last time I did that was when it was already midnight, the car show was the next morning, and I had just realized that I forgot to slide the flare nut up the brake line before I put the flare on the end. It was already too short... "I did NOT just do that."

Probably the safest way to go. I believe the consensus (of the long thread on HybridZ) is that you can block off the heater core lines completely if you don't want any of the heat in the interior. Don't loop the lines one to the other, but block them. But even if you aren't using a heater core ever, you'll still want to be able to connect something to that water pump inlet because you'll still want some small amount of flow through the thermostat housing so you don't end with a cool stagnant pool. That's what the water through the intake manifold would do for you. In addition to warming the intake manifolds, of course. I guess.... If you're POSITIVE that you've got a bypass hole through the thermostat AND you've got the heater core connections blocked off you could do without that nipple. But you (and all future owners) will have to be sure from that point forward that you've got that bypass hole through the thermostat plate. Not sure it's worth the trouble? You got bigger fish to fry right now anyway, right?

There has been much debate about changing the coolant flow scheme of the engine and many believe that blocking that off completely would be a bad idea. There are two things that normally flow into that smaller inlet nipple: 1) Flow from out of the back of the head, through the heater core, and then into that inlet, and 2) Flow that bypasses the thermostat, goes through the intake manifolds, around the back of the engine, and then into that inlet. Here's a brief discussion the last time a related topic came up. The link to HybridZ will lead to a more in depth discussion: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/50855-rear-by-pass-water-tube-in-back-of-engine/

Nice chart. I did a little digging into the entomology of the designation numbers and came up blank. Seems like the 31 would be length, but as for the 75, I don't know. If I had to guess, I would say maybe diameter? 7.5mm? So when are your amazon bulbs due? You know... If you don't like the hue, you could pick up one of the warm whites from superbright that I used (the ones with the 2x3 matrix swapped from what you bought) and desolder the LEDs from both and swap them. You got nothing better to do with your time, right?

Yes. Very different horn culture. If you used your horn in the states like they do in Barbados, I can guarantee many many finger salutes though the course of your daily commute! I unfortunately wasn't in Barbados long enough to decipher the differences between greetings, gratitude and anger. I just remember lots of beeping and being overwhelmed with the frequency. I'm assuming (hoping?) that the beeps directed at my taxi driver were the friendly kind. At least most of them...

Yes, and yes! Lucky, lucky bastard and Australian table wines. I did a little web searching and found (what is probably) the text from that wine skit. It also identified the source as a record (yes, a RECORD) they put out in 1972 called "Monty Python's Previous Record" - 1972. http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/australian_table_wines.htm We are so far off the path of this thread I hope the OP can forgive us. ::

I think that's the best course of action. Especially at the cost. I suspect they're going to fit great, but the color is going to be a crapshoot. This one says "low temperature", but I don't know if they mean a lower number (like 2700K vs 6500K) or they mean lower like "cool white" vs "warm white" : http://www.amazon.com/Festoon-White-DE3022-DE3175-Replacement/dp/B004ZVZNPM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424014019&sr=8-2 And as for a homebuilt or DIY light meter? I doubt it. And who cares? Install it and see if you like it. Absolute number doesn't matter. All that matters is if you like it not. If it's bright enough for you, it's perfect.

I've got a 280, so I can't give you any direct input into the 240 years, but I looked at it and I think it looks great so far. I know the color diagram for the 77 has been a huge help to me on many occasion and I've heard the 240 owners calling for something similar for quite some time. Good luck with the project!

Many moons ago I would pull and reinstall those trannys with no mechanical advantage. Just bench press style laying on the ground with the car on jack stands. If I tried that now I would be crushed like a bug. I think the transmissions have increased substantially in mass over the years. Maybe absorbed stray extra neutrons from the microwave or something?

Yeah, I agree on the stuff from ebay and Amazon. It's really hard to know what you'll be getting. The only way to know for sure sometimes is to buy one and try it. I'm more confident in getting something from Superbright. You stand a better chance of getting something predictable. I don't think a clear lens would buy you much. The white lens does diffusion which is also important. If you had clear, you'd have a hot-spot between your strut towers. The white diffusion lens should throw more light up front and back. Maybe you could test that simply by removing your current lens completely and see how it looked?

Haha! I'll see if I can dig up those two. Here's a Life of Brian reference that flew unnoticed. Near the bottom of page 2 of this thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/40777-spindle-pin-removal-tool-survey/page-2 And this mention of an aborigine's armpit was the other reference that was never called out. It's also Monty Python, but it's been so long that even I don't remember the origin. Something about wine: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/50491-premium-vs-regular-gasoline-smells-different/

Car looks great! And it's really cool that you've managed to hook up with that guy in Barbados. I didn't drive when I was there, but I do remember that everyone beeped shorn horn "Hello. Here I am" bleats to each other. Constantly. So make sure his horn works!

Those 12 LED assys from ebay are 6000K color temp. Nowhere near "warm white". I know it's all personal taste, but I can tell you that I wouldn't like them. As for the other one that has 400 lumens... Did you leave out a link or something? I'm not sure what you're talking about. Did you ever buy some of those six LED bulbs from Amazon? The ones that were turned sideways from what I used?

"I didn't get a harrumph out of dat guy." I was going to just say "Harrumph!" but I was afraid someone might think I disagreed. It's nice to have someone who's got my back on almost all the screwy references I post up here! In fact, I can only remember two that seem to have gone completely without recognition.

I've yet to see a repro that is accurate enough for me not to notice. Either the size, shape, or font used in the inlay is off.

Harrumph! (I agree.)

Well played. Love the wheels. I like how it bulges up in the middle like a sombrero. The bologna... not the wheels.

Haha! That was me who mentioned that the font (of a tag made at a generic metal fab shop) would be different. If I were to look at a car and notice that the VIN tag wasn't the original one and I could tell that it was a repro because the font was different, it would raise all sorts of red flags for me. Explanation from the owner or not, I'd be concerned. I'm not sure if I would be less concerned if the tag was missing altogether. (As explained away by "I replaced the dash because it was cracked." But here is the real issue: Potholez doesn't NEED a VIN tag. He wants a VIN tag. And if he gets a repro with the wrong font, is that "good enough"? I wonder if there are commercial letter/number stamps easily attainable for making better repros... I mean, they're obviously available somewhere to someone, but just wonder if they're available to the general public. Someone with good google-fu ought to look into that. I got stamps, but I have the same ones that almost everyone else has.

True that. What I should have said was that you can have the vehicle inspected by someone authorized to verify the VIN visually (which includes, but is not limited to inspection mechanics). From PennDOT: "If you are unable to locate your vehicle’s VIN plate or you are unable to secure a legible tracing of the plate, contact a certified inspection mechanic or notary public employed by a motor vehicle dealer or issuing agent. These individuals are authorized to inspect and visually verify the VIN when a tracing of the plate is not possible."