Carl Beck

Hi Bill: Yes... I talked to Dr. Bill tonight. I'll just have to make sure I don't pull in anywhere that I can't also pull though.!! Even my son has a hard time backing this monster up... and he's pretty good at trailer backing.. Let the adventure begin... See you there Sunday. FWIW, Carl B.

Ah... the Girls from the Cleveland Convention... Now this was a wild groupLOL ..... and yes, Jim is too modest:finger: FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Big... Your always welcome - I tell people to wear old clothes for the visit, we'll more than likely be in the garage. kind regards, Carl B.

Hi Will/everyone: We'll be leaving Clearwater around 10:00 AM Friday - and should be on Amelia around 4:00PM or so. Looking forward to seeing everyone Sat. Morn. - Long range weather forecast looks promising this year... Thanks for setting all this up... Carl B.

Hi Ron: If I were planning on hauling the car around more than just a couple times - I might have been willing to spend the additional $10K to $12K. No question the BRE Trailer is impressive. FWIW, Carl B.

I bought an 8.5'x20' enclosed car hauler.... it's HUGE!! I'll be looking for people with trailer backing skills - once I get there...:stupid: Tomorrow I'll be out shopping for a wireless rear view camera/display as well. Which reminds me - I need to call Bill Coffey to see if I can take him alongLOL I just pray for good weather this year - ie. no strong winds... FWIW, Carl B.

2 each NOS access panel clips for the very early cars {plastic} - I don't have anything that will give an accurate weight, but I doubt they weigh more than an ounce... $256.00 plus shipping as I recall.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi David: The concept drawing is pretty much on target related to size and shape. I would want hard sides however because of security. While it isn't much more secure - it's a good feeling to know the car is locked inside the trailer when you have to park at a motel for the night. Canvas sides are to easy to cut through without making much noise... Make the nose out of carbon fiber - and put a hinge on it so it folds up enough to work under.. and we're in business. Might have to make a ramp door that double folds.. so it is long enough when down to keep the load angle low.. Ideal would be an aluminum trailer... to keep the total weight down, but that might drive the cost too high. Nonetheless a small single purpose trailer like that shouldn't weight much more than 2000 lbs even if built with steel/plywood. Perhaps just make the nose out of aluminum to make it light enough to lift up easily. After I get back from Amelia - I might talk to a local trailer manufacturer to see if it is economically feasible..... Might be a great trailer for all small sports/gt's that are growing in popularity as Classic's today... It would also have the advantage of being able to be hidden from view by the typical 6' fence around most homes today... FWIW, Carl B.

Just so we don't assign somewhat misleading uses and motives to the equipment itself - the fact that one could use it for the auto hobby, doesn't mean it was intended for the rich and famous. Nor should we expect it to stay as expensive in the future. Building design and engineering prototypes has always been a very useful and in many cases necessary process. One that has always been time consuming in both actual work hours and more importantly total project schedule... Being able to scan existing components, to rapidly build a 3D data base that can be modified to reflect design changes, or altered into completely new products can save a lot of time and money in the product development cycles. It can also cut the time needed for all manor of engineering analysis model builds, to feed simulations etc etc. Likewise "printing" a prototype part in hours presents the potential to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in prototype build costs, and reduce schedules from weeks to hours. Building them in plastic, on the spot in the engineers office, and providing the ability to support many iterative changes/improvements etc - is amazingly cost effective. This "stuff" didn't start out being equipment for Jay's Garage... it's just that with the constant advancement of the technology - it has now made it inexpensive enough to find thousands of other uses in every day life. Compared to the 50's and 60's - most of us have super computers sitting on our desks today.. FWIW, Carl B.

Oh... I guess I had it in my mind that it was blue based on one of the first pictures you posted... Hard to belive that was green at one time.. But your right - I had it confused - with the car that had some interior pictures showing the original blue paint and white interior... So Candy it is.... FWIW, Carl B.

I want something between the fold-up and the 8.5'x20' enclosed car hauler that I now have. To carry a Z I want an "enclose'able" trailer that is about 16' long, by 7' wide, that has front opening access panels so you can tie the front of the car down from outside the trailer. Low ride height and low load angle with a fold down rear ramp door. I want it to be just a few inches taller on the interior than the Z... and I want it for about $3695.00. Maybe if we designed a custom Classic Z Hauler, and had several of them built - we could get that. I don't need to stand up in the trailer, so I don't need to drag a 6'6" tall trailer though the air. The Z is only 13' long so allowing a couple feet for the tie down's in front and rear it only needs to be about 16 or 17' long. It it were build for the Z - using wheel tie downs like the U-Haul trailers use - you'd only need a trailer about 15' long. next project perhaps.... FWIW, Carl B.

As I recall - that was originally a Metallic Blue Z with the White interior.... pretty rare combination today. Personally that has always been my favorite - I'd return it to that color.. FWIW Carl B.

Hi Mark: Good to see you here. It looks like you caught most of the rust before it did any significant damage. Doglegs are to be expected... and it looks like you've done a good job on them. Smart to do both at the same time. Keep at it - spring is just around the corner.... and the driving is beautiful in your part of America. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Walter: You've got it all wrong. The "snow haters" are the people that either move to Florida to begin with, or that come here for at least the winter. We have a slightly more positive name for them.. "snow birds". FWIW, Carl B. I was born and raised in Ohio - I hated the snow and the entire Winter Season there... Got out of it as soon as I could!!

That should concern you. The shape of the doors and door opening on the body are different between the 72's and the 78's. I don't know if the seals from a 78 could be made to work or not - but I wouldn't attempt it - no reason to mess up expensive parts - when the correct parts can still be ordered. No question the Precision Kit is a lot less money than OEM seals, but I'd recommend getting the Precision Kit for your model. FWIW, Carl B.

Most Likely - - - 240SX transmission - stronger, new and improved design - gearing 1st through 4th closer to original - easier to find low mileage examples today - usually not too expensive - rebuild parts still easily available FWIW, Carl B.

The complete article by Steve Heimsouth, related to the 240ZX Transmission swap - is hosted on the Z Car Home Page http:ZHome.com in "the Z Car Technical Library" section. The direct URL is: http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/240SX5spd/transmission.htm FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Pascal: From the time you started looking - to now - that was a fairly quick process compared to many people. Sometimes it takes a year or more to find and then purchase a car here in the States - and then have a car shipped to Europe. The pictures are great. It looks like a pretty stock example and it looks like it is in pretty good condition. Did you get someone to look it over physically before you bought it? Sounds fine on the video as well. You will learn that the 240-Z's are cool blooded - it takes a while to warm them up, and they usually don't run too well until they are warm. The white over-spray on the fuel tank would indicate that some paint work has been done, at least in the rear of the car. {not at all unusual for a 37 year old Z}. The engine compartment looks pretty clean as well. Give me the VIN and I'll see if I have any information on it. In the mean time tell us more about the car - how many miles are on it, how did you find and buy it etc. Also what problems did you have getting it shipped from California and what was the cost of doing that? Should be a pleasure refreshing or restoring it... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Mike - lets make that a day this month... Jim doesn't live too far from the Tampa Air Port... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Jim: Thanks for Posting the video - and you'll have to thank Mr. Osborn for the peek into Z Meca. If anyone wants to see Z Meca being built - I have it on my web site.. http://becksystems.com/Dream/Dream.htm Enigma - right. High resolution video's are needed to do justice to Jim's collection - however it would take a one hour show at least. Maybe I'll make that one of my first video projects for the Dream Garage Section.. as soon as I get a high resolution video camera. Keep in mind - you only saw what was in that garage... FWIW, Carl B.

That's Great - and to think - one of our members started that and owns one of the models.. That video has to be added to any Z Car Video collection.... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Ron: I wondered the same thing. In July of 2007 Lew Kinse, of Canepa Design called, as a follow-up to an e-mail I had sent earlier related to the VIN on the Frisselle Z. He ask where he could find the VIN on the chassis, as the dash and data tags were all missing. I told him where to look on the firewall, then sent a follow-up e-mail with photo's of other cars VIN's stamped into their firewall, and a brief explanation of the VIN structure etc. He replied that he would let me know what they found, if they could remove any of the paint. I never did get an answer from him after that. Could be that it was no longer an issue after the new owner paid for it. Nonetheless an amazing piece of SCCA and Datsun Racing History. FWIW, Carl B.

TrackSide Photo has tons of vintage race cars/trucks on their web site now. See: http://Tracksidephoto.com Remember the "BRE Datsun 510" that was on e-bay last year... and it was disputed that BRE built the car? Well here is a picture of the Baja Truck the seller ran at the Baja... Conner's efforts were pretty successful for Datsun.. Also a picture of the BRE Baja 510 that John Morton and Peter Brock ran in 1972. FWIW, Carl B. Trackside Photo's shown with credits/copyright notice - and with permission.

OK - great Mike. That gives us a good list of what you have and now we can start looking for the missing pages, as well as other issues. I wonder if Will received any when he was working on that CD/DVD with all the historic documents, books, manuals etc etc. I'll go dig through some of my "stuff" and see if any turn up.. Great effort Mike... thanks, Carl