Finally Arrived!

[Ricklandia]

After fighting for nearly six weeks with the morons at DMV in Tallahassee, I finally got the paperwork finished and plates for the car! WOOHOO! Took my wife for a quick spin up to the gas station to fill up, it was running on fumes from weeks of me messing with the motor, or just firing it up to listen to it. :stupid:

Having yanked all the carpeting out (old and mold), every road noise came up through the body, and I do mean EVERY noise. My wife looked at me and asked. "Why do you look so disturbed?" I had to answer it was purely paranoia, that "pseudo-test-pilot feeling" you get after you've made a repair and take it out on the road for the first time. I'm glad to say that nothing that I hadn't already suspected turned up, and although after a few miles I started to relax and enjoy, I also started to build that endless mental list again... ball joints, rod ends, linkage parts, ... :knockedou

[Derrick072]

Wow!!! She is a Beauty!!!!!

[george71z]

Nice find!! Good luck with it. I have '71 and I'm just up the interstate in Melbourne. Don't get that far south too often. Check out the guys in the South Florida Z Car Club. There are a lot of 350's, but some have 240's. They run a lot of events and cruises you can go to. Nice bunch of folks. If you get your baby rung out, and cruise a bit north, look me up. Try and plan on having it ready for next years Z-fest in Orlando.

[e_racer1999]

excellent! i really like wire wheels on Zs.... very sports car........ !

[Ricklandia]

Nice find!! Good luck with it. I have '71 and I'm just up the interstate in Melbourne. Don't get that far south too often. Check out the guys in the South Florida Z Car Club. There are a lot of 350's, but some have 240's. They run a lot of events and cruises you can go to. Nice bunch of folks. If you get your baby rung out, and cruise a bit north, look me up. Try and plan on having it ready for next years Z-fest in Orlando.

Hey George,

I'll definitely take you up on the invitation. My Brother lives in Melbourne, and although I don't get up nearly as often as I'd like to, I've made a promise that when I get this new car road worthy that I would get up his way. I did hook up with the SFZCC on the web, one of the club officers lives just a few miles from my home. Like you say, most are new Z owners but I do see a few "old school" members. On a sadder note, I took her out for a longer spin today, and after about 20 minutes of driving I started to notice the clutch was slipping. :disappoin A major blow as I just dont have the proper tools, or knowledge to tackle that by myself. Crawling under a proped up car in my own garage just makes me too nervous, I'm not as young and fearless as I used to be. Not to mention as limber as I used to be. The local repair shop is good, but like nearly all here in S. FL, very expensive with the labor charges.

Patience... patience...

[e_racer1999]

fyi... a clutch kit comes with the clutch alignment tool..... it's not nearly as hard as it seems....

[Ricklandia]

I've actually done a few clutches, but that was 20 years ago, in a real garage, with real tools (air), on a real lift, with a real transmission jack, ... I was just a kid in High School, but I had already worked in this Mom and Pop gas station/repair shop for 3 years. It was a little town.

Anyway, it's now 20 years later, the tools are long ago gone to pay for things like diapers, family vacations and kids auto insurance. Unfortunately, now if I spend more than 1/2 day doing any serious lifting or contorting, my lower back will leave me sleepless for days. Sometime I wonder which is worse; being in agonizing pain, or feeling the agonizing pain of the local repair shop bill :/

there may be one ray of hope though. My neighbor has a young racer-boy son who gave a jaw-drop when he saw my car in the garage. I might just see what it would take to get him to help me with the heavy stuff.