2ManyZs

If it's just a fairly bare shell, and you don't remove the seat risers, it should be strong enough for a ride on a roll-back. I would at least leave the seat mounts as they will keep the tunnel tied into the rocker panel area and keep it from twisting. You might want to check and see how much extra it would cost for them to remove the floors before they weld the new ones in, no sense in taking any chances if the cost is minimal.

Like the seat Rick, but I hope you teach him to pick a better "role model".... Couldn't you have put him in a Coors uniform?:devious:

Sorry to disagree Ivan, but no LSD's were available in the US until 87. It could be an R-180 or an R-200. I know the 280's used both diffs, but I'm not sure if the 77-78's used only R-180's or both diffs. The 75's were R-200's only, not sure when the started switching. You can put an LSD in either one, but you have to go aftermarket or if you are lucky enough, you might possibly still get a Nismo unit. Stock ratios for the 280's were the same as the 240's, 3:36's for stick, and 3:54 for automatics. If it's a 4:11 it has been changed or it's not from a Z, it could possibly have come from a 200sx Turbo, which might have an LSD in it.

I'd say number 27 describes more than one of us here...... 1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone. 2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire. 3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it. 4. Sex is like air. It's not important unless you aren't getting any. 5. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted. 6. No one is listening until you fart. 7. Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else. 8. Never test the depth of the water with both feet. 9. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments 10. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them you're a mile away and you have their shoes. 11. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you. 12 Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day. 13. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.. 14. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. 15. Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield. 16. Don't worry; it only seems kinky the first time. 17. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. 18. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket. 19. A closed mouth gathers no foot. 20. Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together. 21. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works. 22. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving 23. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. 24. Never miss a good chance to shut up. 25. We are born naked, wet and hungry, and get slapped on our butt. Then things get worse. 26. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night. 27. There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." 28. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. 29. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday..around age 11. 30. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Sorry, the car was missing its bumpers, hood, fenders and the Recaro's when I bought it...:disappoin And yes, it's been sitting in the woods like that for almost 8 years..... not a lot left to pick from except suspension bits and maybe a few things off the engine... had a decent hatch last time I looked... maybe you can get Dan to deliver that as well.... The car is already his, it was part of the package with the trailer. Now you know one of the reasons I sold the trailer, less temptation that way.....

And I bet he delivered it on the trailer I sold him.... Guess that means he's got room for my 76 parts car now....:devious:

You didn't leave an option for those of us that want to but have to wait till the time comes before we decide... If things improve on the "home front", I'm planning on going to the National Convention this fall, if for nothing else to get the chance to meet Mr. K in person and shake his hand. I know the car will never be ready for anything this year....

Sounds like a brake problem, either with a warped rotor perhaps or the anti-squeal shims behind the front brake pads... Could also just be the type of brake pad you are using... See this thread for more info on the problem. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5064&highlight=brake+squeal

Unless you want to spend in excess of 800 bucks on a NOS dash, I'd go with a full dash cover for the time being. There are some companies that will recover them, if you use the search feature here you should find a few posts on the dash subject. As far as the vinyl/carpet, I'd say it's your car, do whichever you like best. It's not that much of a modification to hurt the value of the car... not like coil-over suspensions, fender flares etc.... The main thing to do is not get into a situation where you will regret something you did later, when someone says they would have bought it for X amount if it were entirely stock. In other words, make your modifications ones that are easy to change back to stock. If you have an original engine and want to hot rod it, pull the original out and store it, and do your mods to another engine to save the original.

Well, if all you want to do is fix just one car, you can get away without a lot of the stuff I mentioned. The main things you would need are an air compressor, Mig welder, floor jack, jackstands and the basic list of hand tools. A lot of the things I mentioned are luxury items that most people won't spend the money for. You'd need an angle grinder and a few other assorted hand tools but by and large you could get away for a lot less tools than are on my list. Biggest question is, is it worth it to buy all this stuff to work on only one car? Or would it be make more sense to hire someone to do the difficult jobs, and just do the easy stuff yourself that you can just do with basic tools?

Arghh... how'd my name get into this? First, you have to have the shop... that is the biggest expense right there... 2 car garage with lights and plenty of storage.. 7500 or so..... plus the cost of the lot if you don't have one already. Air compressor: 500-1K dollars depending on how many tools you will be running at once. Sandblasting cabinet and a free standing blaster: figure another 600 or so. Miscellaneous air tools: 400 or so depending on how many air sanders you want. Mig welder: 700 and up for a decent set-up Torch outfit?: 400 or so Drill press: 150 and up Engine hoist and stand: 300 or so... Plasma cutter: 800 and up ( not necessary but would be a huge help when cutting out floor pans etc...) I wish I had one too:disappoin Floor jacks, jackstands: 200 or so.. Hand tools and a cabinet to store them in: unlimited.... Miscellaneous hand tools, grinders, sheetmetal bending brakes, etc...another 1k or so... You starting to get the picture?:cross-eye This won't even get you to where you can paint yet... you'd then need spray guns which could be in the 500 and up category for a couple different ones.. plus, if the laws are strict where you are, you might not even be able to spray without a paint booth... those will cost upwards of 20K... You can spend enormous amounts of money on tools and never have all the ones you need... I've spent the last 20 years buying tools and such and still have a long wish list...

The original underfloor frame rails had drain holes, but, they were usually not large enough and got clogged with debris and caused the water to stay in the rails and rust out.:disappoin The largest amount of water probably got into the frame rails in the first place through the section that is rusted out on yours as it has some areas that are open in the corners. The only other ideas that I can come up with, would be to find another car that is only good for parts, and you could possibly remove the frame rail behind the T/C pocket, as 95% of the worts cars will have this piece in decent or useable condition. If you are going to tackle restoring this car, I would suggest replacing the frame rails inside the engine compartment as well, they are readily available, and these rails usually rust away from the inside. Since you are going to be doing a major frame resto, you might as well replace them, and you'll never have to worry about them again. The only other area of the car that has me kinda nervous is around the battery tray/firewall junction. This area will need to be done by a fabricator as well, as there are no patch panels available. I'd look for shops that are into the antique car restoration business, as they usually have to fabricate a lot of body parts for the cars they are working on as panels aren't available. You could possibly end up spending 2-3K just on this job alone, due to all the labor involved.:disappoin But, this car is going to appreciate much faster than say a 72 or 73 due to the simple fact it has a 69 build date, so the expense should be justified IMO.

That body kit is from MSA (Motorsport Auto) Looks to be their full kit with the front(50-1409), rear(50-1473) and the side skirts(50-1461) or similar items. You can purchase their Aero kit and pick your front air dam, side skirts, and rear skirt, as they have either urethane or fiberglass available.

Egad.... that's got to be one of the first I have seen that rusted out in that area in a while, usually it is above that where the rust takes its toll.. I'd suggest you find a shop that specializes in restoring old cars that has someone that is good at metal fabrication. To someone with the tools and skills to fabricate, this shouldn't be a hard job at all. To those of us who have a hard time forming metal, it would be a difficult job to do it right. Not only that, but that is one of the few places where I believe the 18 gauge metal was used. It's not impossible, but you'll need to shop around and take a look at the metal fabrication the shop does. Hmm, to someone that builds Nascar stock cars for a living, this would be a piece of cake, to us, it's a bit scary.... It is odd that this part of the frame is one of the only parts of the frame work that is not available, but then, this is usually not on of the areas that is rusted away like this one... Good find, if you can find a shop that can do a good job.:nervous:

I'd almost suspect a fuel pickup problem caused by rust and crud in the tank. Does it restart OK after it quits or doesn't it completley quit? I'd pull the drain plug on the tank after you run the tank down as low as you dare just to see what comes out. If you get a lot of crud, you might need to flush and blow out the fuel lines. The second thing that comes to mind would be the water control valve may be stuck open and overheating the intake manifold and it is trying to vapor lock. Easiest way to check this is to block off the water line that comes around the back of the head and connects to the intake and take it for a drive. If these ideas don't work, let us know and we'll give you some more work to do....:devious:

First thing I would check is to see if it has spark when it is warm and won't start. If not, the first thing I would check would be the coil. It could be a sensor, if it is, it's probably the temp sensor in the thermostat housing. Check to see if the wires are connected and Ok as they have a habit of coming loose as they only have a bullet style connector if I remember right. When it won't start, you'll need to find out if it has spark or is not getting gas as that may point in the general direction of the problem.

Let me know when you have saved up enough for this R-200 I have...:devious: Keep us posted with pics, this ought to interest a few people as you build the cage.

As far as we know or have been able to ascertian, they were Bridgestones. Kats was looking for a set of original tires for his car, but in Japan they were Bridgestones with a different tread pattern. I PM'd Kats just in case he's still looking..... this would be one way to get a complete set.... Here's his thread about his search for tires. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=28327#post28327

I'm afraid they are long out of production...but, there may be others that will work just as well. The ones I quoted from MSA are 109.95 a pair. You could also look into these, the California Z body panels are what Jim Cook used to sell many years ago... http://zdatsun.com/fiberglass.html Here's a pic of a set that was listed on Ebay in Australia, one of our members put up the link to the auction for a car, and he had these flares as part of the package. I only wish that someone could tell us who makes them, and if we could get them in the US....

I can't help much on the flares except they do look like something fairly old. Either BSR, Jim Cook, or one of the other aftermarket suppliers from days gone by...... I seem to remember Impact Parts had a flare similar called the IMSA flare that could be had either in a bond-on flare or a complete fender and quarter panel overlay.... If you have an MSA catalog to look at, their flares for the front, part number 50-15519(street) and the rear flares, part number 50-1561(IMSA) look fairly similar. The front ones don't look quite like the IMSA flares they have pictured in their catalog, so maybe someone did a mix-and-match to make it look better? The spoiler is just a 3 piece standard spoiler, but someone has taken the time to blend it into the body work. Oddly enough, this spoiler is hard to find now.

Guess that means I'll be having a hard time selling the new XR-700 I have in the drawer huh?:disappoin

I'd like it a lot better if they were to get rid of the ugly lights and door handles.... but then, if they did that, I might like the coupe as well....:tapemouth :cross-eye

It's not always about the weight of the tire and wheel package in total, it is a concern about the rotational inertia of the wheel and tire package. You have to take into account, the suspensions of these cars weren't built to take the stresses these bigger wheel and tire combo's can put on the wheel bearings and spindles. 5 inches of backspacing is going to be about what you would probably need. I've got a set of 15x8's (came with the car and not my choice) that have 5 inches of backspacing with 195/65's. They are about 1/4 inch from rubbing the stock spring and perch. So with coil overs, you should be OK.

Besides what Ed mentioned, be on the lookout for seized brakes, seized U-joints and rotted suspension bushings. See what the fluid looks like in the master cylinders and check the rubber hose on the slave cylinder. Bounce the corners of the car to see if the strut cartridges are seized as well. Might not be a bad idea to look for snakes in Texas as well.....:cross-eye :hurt: :paranoid:

I only have one question. Why? Here's the reasons it not the best idea. 1. Cost 2. Weight 3. Modifications needed to make them fit 4. Ride quality will suck 5. Harder on the suspension and chassis of a 30 year old car 6. You'll need to modify the brakes or you will be replacing parts like crazy. 7. Harder to turn with no power steering. Those are just the main reason... there could be more, like how they look for one thing, just because 15's and 16's look good, bigger is not always better. Is it worth an extra 2K dollars (or more) just to have bigger wheels than the next guy?