26th-Z

Exactly! Cut the old windshirled out and rope the new one in with soapy water. This is OLD technology. Get an old guy with experience to do it.

Thanks! I had not seen those videos before. That is so close to what I am doing it's pathetic! Her Majesty the 26th was (is) not anywhere near that bad but my little dancer Princess 27 is. I'm not using POR and I didn't have to do all that scraping and cleaning because I had the babe dipped. But if you want an idea about what cutting, welding and grinding is all about, this is it. What a great idea to make the videos. Love it!

I ordered a set of the Carl Beck / Bryan Pilati repro Euro Springs. I also bought two sets of the stock ones. I don't expect the Euro springs to lower the car any. I don't think they are a lowering spring.

I have been told to avoid oil-less compressors. Mine is a 5hp 60 gallon cart type and it does pretty well. I don't have the space for a larger unit and as much as I would like a bead blast cabinet, space keeps me from making that jump.

First link didn't work. The second link has only sound.

Here are a couple of pictures for you. The E46 balance tube like this one is what we deal with most commonly in America as the casting provides mounting for emissions hardware. The vacumn tube comes off the end of mine. It is the early type. Later models of the Z have the vacumn tube takeoff on the top of the balance tube. The hose for the brake booster is different. Plugs for the vacumn line fittings are pretty easy to find. These are brass plugs. The E41 balance tube is what came on cars without emissions hardware. Here are two variants. One fits the vacumn line off the end of the tube and the other has fittings on top of the tube. It should also be noted that the hose fitting that screws into the manifold is machined for a restricted oriface.

Yea! There ya go! That looks great!

Silver looks better in Florida than New York, Arne. I'll bet it would look great in the sunshine. No question in my mind, that's 105,000 miles - just by looking at the pictures. But no matter, it still looks pretty good. For all the work it may need I agree with Patrick that it is way ahead of restoring a rusted car.

These are all pictures of my radios, ZSaint. The AM goes in 27th. I'm hoping to restore the face plate for this 8-track to put in 26th. I'll get out to the shop and look at the silver finishes, Enrique. You are the second guy I've talked to who suggested JB Weld. See the two little silver triangles on the 8-track flapper door? The door is brushed metal painted (or anodized) black and masked for the Hitachi name. Those little triangles are wear marks from the 8-track cassette. How am I going to get that black again? Ink? The coating is not a thick mil paint. Its almost like anodizing.

Yes! I made repro seat belt labels. From this original. A photographer friend of mine had some material from a sample kit he got of papers and textile media that was printable. I scanned the label, photoshopped a 8-1/2x11 sheet of them and laser printed the file on to the one sample sheet I had. I tried to buy more material, but they wanted $300 for a roll of it big enough to wallpaper my shop. Thus endeth my million $ scheme to eBay repro seat belt labels. I probably have over $70 in that exercise! CW-

If it looks like this, ZSaint, it will fit. Remember to fasten the radio chassis to the tunnel. The face plate screws really just hold the face plate on. They don't support the radio.

I just have not caught the hang of photgraphing parts, Enrique. The focal length is all wrong. The lighting sucks. I'm getting better, but you would think I was some sort of photographic hack by looking at my parts pictures. Race car at speed - no problem. Gothic cathedral stone details on a cloudy day in Paris - no problem. Nudes on the beach at sunset - no problem. But parts on my work bench? It's the same face plate. I assure you! This is the nice radio, not the restoration in question. Yes, the backing plate is upside down! It's just in the box that way. Hell, everything is in boxes! Thanks for the nail polish idea. I'll try that. I have been using a paint pen from "Testors". It is a felt-tip pen full of silver paint. Works well on the raised lettering and the finish is fairly satin. CW-

US imported Z cars came with emission controls from day one. Take a look at what I have to deal with here. Ahhghh!!! I'm really looking for the air tube that connects to the exhaust manifold. But I would rather have the exhaust manifold with it, and if that part is nice, I might as well take the rest...it just goes on and on, doesn't it? Let me know what you find and we'll talk. I don't expect anyone to go out to the junk yard and wrench for nothing. Let me know if anyone is inspired. 27th is going to be as stock as I can make her and I would like to have some more of the emission hardware to work with.

I'm looking for emissions parts. Nice restorable stuff. I would buy the whole top end of the engine - head and all - smog pump.... If anyone is so inclined, send me a PM.

I may take you up on that, Enrique. How are you at repairing the broken corners? Here are some detail shots.

A car with real racing history turned into a rally replica. It is my firm belief that many of the racing parts from HS30-00026, a factory rally chassis, are on this car. Thanks for the article link.

Thought all you seat belt afficianodos would enjoy this picture. Check out the date on the label.

I have a Sony like that. It had an adaptor face to fit on the console face plate and the chassis fit nicely under the heater box. I put a right side speaker mount in 26th for dual speakers. Worked well, but as I said, the queen makes a lot of noise when she's driven and it wasn't anything like tunes in cars today. I'm with you on the stock-but-modified thing. After two years of searching, I finally found a Hitachi 8-track option. I figure a few 8-tracks to play at car shows will do fine.

Thanks Will. It's looking like I am in charge of the car show for the 2007 convention and I am going to be doing some planning. Hopeless architects - you gotta have the right car in the picture - you know? CW-

I'm looking for (and I'll probably have to make it) a similar drawing of the Z31 and Z32. I could use an S130 too. But I don't have accurate dimensions. The FSMs have dimensioned drawings like my early manual? Can someone scan one for me and I'll make up a CAD file.

I just ran across an ad in "Old Cars Weekly". "CLASSIC LOOK - MODERN PERFORMANCE" "Convert Your Original Radio to PLL AM/FM Stereo". www.turnswitch.com Electro-Tech, Inc. 8836 Xylite Street N.E. Blaine, MN 55449 (877) 780-2861 Her Majesty the 26th has always been a noisy babe and listening to tunes a-la "touring" is not really her style. At one time, she had a cassette deck in her with twin speakers in the back, but that wasn't anything to brag about. The problem with the early Z console is that there is no room for a big large unit and you are limited with what will fit behind the console plate - like Kenz pointed out. I like the Mp3 idea.

Yes, but isn't this what it looks like?

My experience was sending them what I had and discussing the issue on the phone with them including price after they had a chance to see what they were working with. Not all of my stuff was salvageable. I sent them four sets and got back three. Mine worked out to about $250 per set.