mikemeade

I just talked to Les at Classic Datsun Motorsports, and he says that the mold has been made, and copies are ready to be produced. Hopefully I will have my original back in a few days. Anyone who is interested in the hood vent should contact Les. Mike

Well I finally got off my butt and shipped out the hood vent. It should be at Classic Datsun Motorsports next week.

I'll admit to not being around here much, but I'm unlikely to send my hood out to someone with a lousy reputation. I was PM'd by Classic Datsun Motorsports. Anyone else feel like giving me a recommendation for their quality? Send a PM if you aren't comfortable with anything. i don't want to badmouth anyone I know nothing about, but if I am making a leap in sending out parts, I want to make sure that I can trust I will get them back.

Hard to believe that it has been 2-1/2 years already. I do still have the hood, and I have some PMs from people wanting to copy the hood. I'll look into it more this weekend, but I'm pretty sure that I can get something going. I'm sorry I dropped off the face of the planet, but I had to shelf the z project until a few other big things are wrapped up. The good thing is that I won't be missing the hood if it is gone for a while. Mike

My car is hls30149709 I know its a '73, but I can't think of the month off the top of my head. Ha! I'm a mere 163 cars away from nwcubsman, who lives here in Portland! Cool!

I was suprised too, until I put the hood down and noticed that the hole fits perfectly over the carbs. It makes sense too that none of the side of the bulge was cut, as that gives some rigidity to the rest of the hood. The structural integrity of the hood isn't really comrimised becuase the side walls of the bulge stiffen the hood quite effectivly. While the "bulge" might be weaker, it is covered by the scoop.

Oh, I should get some shots of that to share too... Yes, there is a giant hole in the hood that is about four inches wide and maybe thirty inches long. It looks just like the diagram that was shown earlier in the post. It looks like they could have used two large hole saws, and then connected the two holes... There isn't really any protection around the edge of the metal either, it's just a large cut hole. I'll grab a photo tonight and post it tommorrow so you can see what I mean. Mike *edit* Okay, I found this shot from when I was working on freeing up the engine. I ended up spraying ATF all over the engine compartment, so please don't mind the mess.... Yup, no reinforcement, just a big ol' hole. I'll try to get a shot from the top tonight. */edit*

Okay, so here are some shots of my hood, if you guys are interested. Looks like it has had some repair in it's life:

Well, technically mine was in Boise until I dragged it home. That car was sold originally in Boise and had been there its entire life until I came along...

I have one of these hood scoops. As far as I can tell, mine is original. It was not "glassed to the hood" it was secured with five bolts. The structure underneath the hood is also quite different from mine. It's hard to tell, but it looks like there is an opening in the back of the scoop, which mine definitly doesn't have. I would say that Will is right, this looks like a copy. I'm taking mine to a fiberglass shop here in a little bit to see how much copies would cost. I took it off the car last night, so I will try to take a couple of shots so that you guys can comare real versus copy. Mike

I've always heard people mention using corvette panel adhesive in relation to fiberglass flares and such... I'm not sure where you would find it though.

The 2000GT is a great little car. From what I understand, the convertable used in the James Bond movie, was specially created for the movie. I guess that Sean Connery was too tall for the car otherwise, so they cut the top off! There was recently an article in Classic Motorsports about the racing history of the 2000GT. Its a pretty short article, but still a great read. Mike

Cool, I have a couple of leads on places that do fiberglass work. Do any of you Portland area guys know of good places?

Actually, I kinda like the hood. I originally thought that I would seek to replace it, but it has grown on me. I also kinda like the fact that it makes the car different, but is done so from the dealer. I will probably look into what copies cost next week, just because I have never had to work with fiberglass before. I don't have to make money, but I figured that if I did, it couldn't hurt.

So only one person is interested? Maybe two? I'll have to see how much the mold and copies would cost. I was hoping to offset any mold costs with several orders.

Okay, I'll clarify. I am only really interested in making the "hood vent" I have already taken it off, and put it back on my car, so I know that it isn't bonded together. My car doesn't seem to have the gaskets shown in this picture, but I imagine that new gaskets could be cut from thin rubber fairly easily. My hood really seems to have been cut in a shop somewhere. The cuts aren't perfect, but you would never know becuase the vent hides the hole pretty well. The thing that I found interesting is that hold the vents on the car aren't metric! I'm assuming that this must have been a US only item.

Recently I acquired a 240Z with the competition hood. I don't really know how rare the competition hood scoop is, and I don't know if anyone else besides me even likes it. I have been asked by one person if I could make a copy of it. Since I did the math the other day and figured out that it will take about $1000 to get my car back on the road at the minimum, I thought that I would like to see how many people would be interested in a copy of the hood. If I can get a professional fiberglass outfit to make copies for me, would there be much interest? Oh, and if this isn't the right place for this kind of post, please let me know and I will delete it or move it if I can. Thanks, Mike

Heck, I'd be on them in a flash if I didn't want to stay married...Bringing home one z? that's survivable... Bringing home five more? I would be single before I even left to go get them.

My car has one in front of the gas tank. I must admit to being confused when I found it, as I had already seen the mechanical pump in the engine compartment. Both seem to be hooked up, which i find suprising, but apparently my car went through all the fixes for vapor lock.

A friend of mine has a s600 that holds a land speed record at Bonneville for a stock 600cc car. His passes avereaged out just somewhere just over 80mph! The chain drive is an odd one, there is a differential after the transmission, that has axles that drive two individual chains, one for each rear wheel. It's actually a novel system that basically works as an independant rear end. I took these shots last christmas, so I apologise for the santa and the dark shots. He takes the car out and puts Santa in the "driver's seat". He tells all the kids he is delivering toys in Santa's red sleigh... It's pretty cool.

Tom, A strap wrench worked well enough in turning my engine, once I got it to break free. If you aren't familiar with them, they look like this: You can get the right socket, but that may cost $20, wheras the wrench only costs around $10, and you can use it for other things. My wife has one that she uses in the kitchen to open jars and such.

Believe it or not, I've been taking things slow.... Really slow... I have had a ton of non car things to do lately. I think that the next thing to do on my list is to drain the oil, and then I would like to drop the pan and see what kind of sludge I have to deal with. The gas tank is now out, and I will probably send it off to be cleaned next week. I'm quite exhausted after my buddy's wedding this weekend, so I may need a day or two to rest before I get back to the car. It's calling me though, I need to get it running. Now the engine doesn't stick, so I figure I can test fire the engine after I am sure what the bottom of the engine looks like. Good luck to you too Tom. My in-laws are in Medford. Maybe someday I'll get this car running well enough to visit them... But thats a long ways off.

There's one on eBay... No idea what year it belongs to though... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120022605028 Not mine, not implying its a good one etc....

well I went out and tried to rotate the engine. No dice. Either I wasn't strong enough, or the engine was stuck.. The wrench on the pulley would not move. I figured, what the heck, I'll try putting the car in 4th and rocking it back and forth. No joy. I pushed and pushed and rocked the car, and nothing happened. I tried first gear next, still no luck. At this point in time, I was getting kinda ticked off... I stuck the car in 4th again, just to see what would happen. I rocked a couple times, and POP! The entire passenger side of the engine bay is covered in ATF. (I had been soaking the cylinders) So the engine has broken free! I then switched to rotating the engine by hand. It rotates fine to a point. There is definitly a point in both directions where the pulley stops. I'm imagining the worst. possible the bores are messed up enough that the pistons cant get back past the point where they were stuck? I don't really know. Should I hold off trying to start the engine? What should I do next?

Check! Yes, not fun indeed. I have the tank half off, but I can't seem to figure out how to get access to remove the filler hose... working on it though. I may start the engine from a gas can temporarily. Check! The slides are free, the choke appears to function, I cleaned the air filters, and I think that I'll rebuild later if I can't get them tuned! Definitly still on the checklist. I filled the radiator/engine with water for now, if a hose lets go right when I start the car, I will only lose water I did the ATF, in fact its been soaking about three days now... Rotating the crank is next. All on the to do list. The battery is currently removed, I thought that I would try throwing a charge at it just to see what happens. Filter and oil are purchased and ready to go. Done! I do have a couple questions about the bar that runs over the rockers. There was one piece which seemed loose, but I'll post pictures later tonight. Man, I thought that I was almost there, but there are still a lot of things left on this list! I think that I'll go try to turn the engine, and see what happens.