Front end 'spook' options..

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Concur Arne.

I just went and looked where my holes should be in my cross member. I did find two through holes, and one with a nut plate in back, but nothing regular.

Arne, did you say you only bolted yours up to your lower valance panels, vs the radiator lower support. I have a little while to figure this out, as I have some POR work to do, but I am hoping by next weekend I can be bolting things back up.

Plus I have the little dilemma of not having half the bolts I need. THe nut plates on the center valance and where the left and left and right valance attach to the bezel are a smaller hole than the nut plates I have going into the fender. So I need to figure out what size they are and pick up about 12. Then once I get all the valances mounted rigid, I can fit the spook. I have about a dozen soft jaws for when I make furniture I can use to hold it while I measure.

I certainly appreciate your help.

[Arne]

Yes, mine is currently attached only to the valance itself, not the core support. I still fiddle with that when I remove the spook periodically (bug cleaning and waxing). Still can't say that I have finalized mine quite yet.

[Carl Beck]

Hi Arne:

hummmm..... When I was at Les's shop around 1999 - he had just begun to reproduce the Spooks.. I bought four of them because I was so happy to get high quality reproductions, rather than having to rebuild mine for the fifth or sixth time. Plus I knew some of the guys around here would want or need one sooner or later, and Les needed to move a few to pay for the initial costs of startup..

Anyway - I still had one on the shelf. I went out and took a look and sure enough the circles that indicate where to drill for the core support are clearly present. I'll see if I can get a clear picture tomorrow with some indirect sunlight. {hard to get clear picture of an all shinny black surface with a flash}.

Even in 71, in order to get that first couple of bolts threaded into the captive nuts - one had to push up with one's right hand with a lot of pressure - and start the bolt on its way in with your left hand. Just holding the Spook in place - it is about 0.5" of more below the core support. As it is flexed up and the three bolts are tightened down - it spreads out to the sides a bit as well.

Not knowing much about the design of fiberglass structures, I don't know if this pre-stress is intentional or not. I do know that the original held up on my Z without showing any stress cracks etc - at least until I destroyed it on parking stops..

Like I said - that was around 99 - so things might have changed since then..

FWIW,

Carl B

[Zedyone_kenobi]

You bring up an interesting point Carl, start from the center first, like applying vinyl decals, and work your way to the corners. Good point, and probably worth highlighting.

[Arne]

Hi Arne:

hummmm..... When I was at Les's shop around 1999 - he had just begun to reproduce the Spooks.. I bought four of them because I was so happy to get high quality reproductions, rather than having to rebuild mine for the fifth or sixth time. Plus I knew some of the guys around here would want or need one sooner or later, and Les needed to move a few to pay for the initial costs of startup..

Anyway - I still had one on the shelf. I went out and took a look and sure enough the circles that indicate where to drill for the core support are clearly present. I'll see if I can get a clear picture tomorrow with some indirect sunlight. {hard to get clear picture of an all shinny black surface with a flash}.

Even in 71, in order to get that first couple of bolts threaded into the captive nuts - one had to push up with one's right hand with a lot of pressure - and start the bolt on its way in with your left hand. Just holding the Spook in place - it is about 0.5" of more below the core support. As it is flexed up and the three bolts are tightened down - it spreads out to the sides a bit as well.

Not knowing much about the design of fiberglass structures, I don't know if this pre-stress is intentional or not. I do know that the original held up on my Z without showing any stress cracks etc - at least until I destroyed it on parking stops..

Like I said - that was around 99 - so things might have changed since then..

Definitely no circles on mine, the black gel-coat was beautifully smooth in the mounting area.

The prestress bit is good to know, would have been even better to know when I first installed it, I'd have tried a bit harder to do it. The gap you describe sounds right to me, which is reassuring. At least I know mine is normal.

I'll probably take a stab at using the core support holes again, with this new info. My fear is that I may have mounted mine a touch too far forward now.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Whether you did or not Arne, it looks just fantastic in your pictures!

[Caen Fred]

I hope it's not too late, you may have other options than the Spook

It's a JDM spoiler from RS-Start

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Its too late...

haha, but that looks really nice.

[ChrisZ]

I hope it's not too late, you may have other options than the Spook

It's a JDM spoiler from RS-Start

Caen, where did you get it and what did you pay?

Chris

[Caen Fred]

I bought it from RS-START in Japan and had it shipped to me by a friend over there. The expensive part was the shipping. Can't remember how much it was 18 month ago

[ChrisZ]

Hmmm. just had a look at there homepage and i cant find it, it might be that funny google translation that make it had for me.

Please see if you can remember, i really like it.

Chris

[Mike B]

Is this it? http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rsstart.com/&ei=VSH_Sc-ROpi8swOXqIXWAQ&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DRS-Start%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS326%26sa%3DG

It guess it won't link directly to the correct page, but go to "Fairlady Z S30 Parts", then Fair Lady S30, S31FRP Parts"

It looks like it is 26,250 yen.

-Mike

Edited May 4, 2009 by Mike B