DaveBonds

I love the black hood look on the 510. I'm a sucker for R code SuperBees and Roadrunners too. I wouldn't mind owning a 432R with a black hood as well, but that's just because of the black hood... yeah. PPG does make a flattening agent (DX685) that adds to clearcoat in a desired amount, for the desired level of gloss/ flat if you ever have issues with your hood. I know that matte clear cleans a lot easier than untouched primer and the texture lays down flatter out of the gun.

I don't have any qualms with Shop Line, along with any other PPG product aside from the Omni line. I'm not sure if that line has it's own toner bank for basecoats or if it is just a compatable topcoat, sealer 2k primers, etc. I just haven't had any reason to use it or go out of my way to buy it for anything. I used some up that we had around from last year, when our shop finished a '69 Dart Swinger with it. I didn't have as hard of time dealing with die back when I polished it. I haven't used it since, but I may suggest it again to my coworkers as an alternative to the low end stuff that we do, since they're so gung-ho on PPG at my shop. hahaha... If I'm going to buy clearcoat for anything that I plan on keeping, I'll spend the dough on Glasurit, if it will see the road and if I plan on keeping the car. If I had a budget in mind for a project, I'd go out and get some Nason. It's the quickest drying, highest solid level in a budget clearcoat. You can also purchase higher solids catalyst for that clear as well. I like using fast drying clearcoats, but you have to pace yourself differently, doing a complete paint job with them. It's usually a good idea to mix up all of the clear that you know you will be using with a pitcher and bring it into the spray booth with you, so you aren't wasting time mixing. I usually mix up enough to do one full coat. On a 240, I would mix about two litres or just under three quarts sprayable material for one full coat on the outside and bring it into the booth with me, so I can reload my gun immediately, stopping just after finishing up a complete panel before actually running out in the cup of the gun. This will allow me to make a complete round on the car without the paint locking up where I started, before letting it flash cure for the next coat.

I've used it as well. It doesn't act up nearly as much as Omni. It seems to be a more forgiving product to use than standard Omni basecoat/ clearcoat, but I've had the same shrinking results with it. The '70 Bee that I shot a few months ago was standard Omni. I cut and polished all of the texture out. It's flat, but I'm not too pleased with how it shrank. I did make sure that my primer was perfect before shooting it, so it's not very noticable, but after seeing it right after I cut and polished it compared to now, I know that it shrunk. I don't know that anybody could tell the difference unless they saw a before and after in person, but I'm going to avoid that line all together in the future. I didn't have a say about what product to use, but the results convinced my boss against using it again. DeBeer is also good paint that is user friendly and not too expensive under the Valspar brand, but the company isn't all that great according to one of the reps that I used to get supplies from.

That all sounds right to me and sort of confirmed my concerns. I have completely restored my intakes, linkage and SU's... I suppose I should just install them on the L24 after I check the cylinders for runout and possible re-ring. If I can find a 3.91 and 5 speed with the right speedo gear, I'll roll with that for a lower first. 13 second ET's and 30mpg from the same car just sounds awful tempting, as slightly more complex as it would be. I think I'll just try what I have for now until I get a reason to build another engine or something. Somebody start reproducing these, please- Problem solved. I always warm my engine up before driving, so I would probably be ok with a set of those carbs, matched with the 5 speed, taller gears and a good cam, I'll bet it would be pretty fun. I'll just have to see what my fuel budget would look like at 17mpg.

I've been a member here for a while as well as over at hybridZ. I'm more or less just fishing for ideas and experience with engine/ cam combos against final ratios. The Mikuni and Weber carbs would only be used as a throttle body, without any functioning parts other than the butterflys. Clifford states on their website that they have them available, along with cannon manifolds for various I6 engines, but they don't cater to Nissan cars for manifolds. I was more interested in the FI 3x2 Weber carb throttle bodies that they were mentioning, but I don't see anything solid on their site. I have no idea what they were using for injectors, a rail or management. I stumbled on it when I was helping a friend with his slant six and it got me thinking. I would have all of the asthetics of them without the drawback of having three carbs and no choke. It wouldn't be hard to just make from a used set of carbs with a few extra parts. I would love to just run a set of webers, but the fact that they are chokeless kind of kills it for me. I live in Denver and this is going to be a daily driver in most weather, along with a weekend road track on occasion. This also explains my concern with fuel economy. I don't mind getting down near 20mpg, but more is always better. I drive from Lakewood to Littleton every day. My primary concern with the 5 speed that I drove in the '80 ZX was what Bruce Palmer mentions about the torque. I don't mind swapping an L28 and bumping up the HP, but it seems kind of a shame, as I already have the L24 that runs. I also understand that the L24 works better in higher RPM, which is where I would like to leave it. This is really the root of my interest in an extra gear and taller R180. I'd really like a 3.9 final, if I go five speed. If anything, I'd like to get a little more power out of the car with a 2.4... An L28 isn't entirely out of the question, but I like how the 240 is catered for higher RPM.

I'm building an early '72 that currently has the completely stock L24 and 4spd. I'm losing the air pump and emissions garbage if I keep the SU's and stock drivetrain. I may dump a mild cam and header in it if I keep it NA. I've been beating around the idea of going with a custom fuel injection and boost setup with a five speed, in gain of fuel economy and performance. I'm just not sure if I should take the plunge. I know of a Celica GT with a 7MGTE that gets 30mpg, running a stock engine and pulls mid 13 second E.T.'s, which sounds awful tempting. I've heared of people using Mikunis and Webers for throttle bodies. I'd like to go this direction, but I'd like to see this setup first. If nothing else, I may just swap in a five speed, but I don't like the idea of pulling 3 grand up at 80mph. I don't know if that just seems too high to me, but I typically average 55mph to work. That seems like it would be borderline torque abuse in 5th gear. Something like 2000-2400rpm maybe, which seems like downshift territory under that kind of speed. My brother has an '80 ZX 5speed. When I drive it, I don't get into 5th gear until I'm at up to around 60mph. It just seems a bit out of my usage and I'm not sure if I will benefit from a fifth gear without entering a 4.10:1 rear ratio. What are the factory rear gear ratios of the datsun 5 speed cars with R180's? I know some of the later ones used a Borg Warner, but I'd rather keep this as simple as possible. I don't mind swapping differentials too, but it would be nice if I could get a good final ratio as easily as possible and keep my speedometer accurate. Any experience or advice is much appreciated. Thanks! Dave

If someone wanted to, in a race application, they could seriously benefit from running a race coolant through a coil in an ice canister with an inline pump through the intake manifold, separately from the block and head's antifreeze system.

In some cases they are oversize, including the metal spine in lots of applications, just like some window felts. Just be sure to look for any unique shapes on one end and cut the opposite end.

If you are going to consider using PPG paint lines, stay away from Omni. Omni clearcoats are very tempered. They are very sensitive to area temperature when painting, even with the correct drying/ temp/ speed products used for your application. Omni has just about the lowest level of solids that I have ever used in comparison to any other base line basecoat, clearcoat or single stage paint. I just finished shooting a 1970 Superbee in Omni base/ clear in a bright, non-metallic green. It took six coats of basecoat, with tac-cloth between coats to get it to cover. I let the two medium coats of clear sit for almost an entire month and it still shrunk up after cutting and polishing it, 3 weeks after the fact. This is due to the high ratio of solivents to solids in the clear. The bit of clear that I had left in the gun liner that I let dry shrunk up to just about 80% of it's original dimensions. I have used just about every brand of paint and I do think that there are far better choices for the money over PPG products, but they are still good products. I would have to say that Sherwin Williams are probably the most user friendly products that I have used, while PPG are the most picky. The best finish that I have seen so far would be Glasurit, followed closely by Sikkens. Glasurit is the high end of BASF chemical/ paint's line and Sikkens is the high end product line under Akzo Nobel. If you are looking to spend less money, I've discovered that DuPont's price line Nason is much more user friendly, dries quicker and doesn't shrink back nearly as much as Omni. It's a significant amount cheaper than Omni as well. Their basecoats are just as good as covering as Omni or any other price point product, but as long as you tac cloth between coats and go until you don't see any coverage change, it doesn't matter how many coats you have under the clear. You are only looking for color coverage with basecoats. PPG is the most popular among body shops in the united states, much like Toyota or General Motors as a car company, but they are not the best from my experiences. My paint and metal shaping teacher hated it, even though our school switched from Sikkens to PPG for cost efficiency. One of the best newer products that I have used to eliminate waves and reduce shrinking of primer surfacers are polyester primers. They are a direct to metal application and are polyester resin based, like body filler, only much thinner. You need a pretty large tip in your primer gun like a 1.6, but it is amazing stuff, when used with a long board and 180 paper before primer surfacer. I've used urethane and enamel single stage paints and I wouldn't advise using them. The new urethane single stage paints are formulated using basecoat toners with a different binding agent and urethane clear solids. The end result is relatively the same, without the depth of shine as a true base/ clear application, but as explained above, the UV protectant is just not as residual. It's also not very friendly for repair or any kind of work you may want or have to do on the painted panel. If you have a metallic and want to color sand/ polish texture out, it will remove more of the aluminum and formica powders out of the paint in those areas that make up the metallics and you will see it in the finished result. The same goes for wet sanding metallic basecoats without recoating/ blending a sand/ repair area, like a piece of dirt or dust that you don't want to clear over. Even the low end basecoat/ clearcoat paint applications are better than any factory paint. There is no need to baby it other than routine cleaning (and waxing after six months). You can leave it outside and it will not hurt anything. I actually prefer using higher solid clearcoats on drivers over show cars that live indoors. As far as I know, Glasurit has the highest level of solids and highest clarity and gloss rating in the market today.

I'm pretty sure that it just requires two tail light and license plate finish panels with light assemblies. I'm not even sure if you need a new light harness. Most of the time, auto manufacturers do whatever they can to leave a body stamping alone and still modify to it's new model look by bolting parts to existing stuff. With that in mind, I would imagine that you may not even need to drill any new holes.

Thanks Carl. I know about Black Dragon and Motorsport Auto. I've been fishing a few websites for the taillights in particular. Black Dragon and Motorsport have 260/280 lenses and assemblies available. There was one outfit called too intense restoration that has them listed, but no prices available. I'm willing to spend a few hundred on lenses, but not to the tune of $500+ I'll scope the other websites you listed for them as well as the urethane spoiler. I've seen several in fiberglass, but I haven't come by urethane in my passing just yet. Thanks again! Dave

Hello. I'm relatively new to this forum and I'm looking for a few parts for my '72 Z; Urethane BRE front spoiler/ spook. With or without vents. Preferrably without, but will consider anything. Not really looking for an air dam to replace the valance and corners. Just the unit that bolts to the valance, etc. Rear lower body panel (weld on) with or without exhaust cutout. Preferably without. Tail light lenses. I don't care too much about the chromed plastic. Just looking for a good, relatively inexpensive set of nice lenses. Euro/ Jpn spec or US/ Aus spec. I don't care. Unvented hood. Minor body damage and tearin/ cracking doesn't bother me, in or near the Denver area. I'm willing to drive up to 100 miles to get a good, used one. Thanks! Dave

I understand that the United States government has imposed a large sum of money due at each sale that GM (and all other auto manufacturers here in the US, including Nissan and Toyota) make. And I understand how that equates in higher prices to us as end users. While I'm not a fan of a large sum of taxes that our government instates (that's another conversation), I will say this; Simply eliminating the tax that stipulates a 51% price spike in large production and assembly plant product sales isn't a fair assessment. Legitimately, I think the taxation is high, but we can't just eliminate it all. Comparing corporate sales with/ without taxes is simply unrealistic. GM isn't a noble company. They bought out the mass transit rail systems in major cities (such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver) to dismantle them in elimination of competition for further auto sales. Their layoffs in Flint, Michigan caused more than half of the city to board up it's windows and among other revolts, such as the formation of the United Auto Workers, it even merited prior employees into mental institutions. GM now has more retired employees/ union members on payroll than they have workers in their assembly plantations. The average unionized worker for GM makes $75 per hour. The average for Toyota makes $40 per hour. Nobody is going to convince me that they are or ever were a careful company. Their new advertising campaign says that their once was a time when having eight car companies under the same parent company made sense, but now it doesn't. It never made sense. Chrysler gets out of bankruptcy by being bought out by Fiat, one of the worlds largest car companies and one of the only with a surplus large enough to lay such a stake. GM responds to their bankruptcy and debt to us by selling themselves to... the new GM? This is just a gigantic marketting schematic and nothing more. All the federal budgetting that set a number on assets going to auto makers was just simply devided up into this bill, to make it look like they were doing the public a favor by giving the auto makers more of our borrowed money. And let's not forget that these cars are being crushed. Not sold, salvaged or even donated to the people who still live in FEMA trailors in NewOrleans who can't afford any car for their family. They crush them all. I'm sorry, but this bill was not very well planned or even thought out completely before being stamped into action. This was totally reactive and not proactive in the slightest.

112 is a very yellow green, but it does have a bit of blue. It is a green when it comes down to the wire. I'm working on a '70 Superbee in Green-Go with a black vinyl top. It's almost Sublime, but it's just a touch darker. Both are a very eye catching and work extremely well when complimented by black accents. I love the look of the spook and black hood against the green. Very cool. I really like the bumperless rear look. I've been debating it on my car for quite a while now, because my car does not have a rear bumper. Sort of reminds me of the BRE cars. Once you get a tip on that exhaust it will cure the carbon on the valance. The front is a bit busy on these cars without a bumper, or at least a split bumper. I think your car would look killer with a black front bumper. I think it would clean the front end up while keeping the same feel you've got going. I really like the contrast!

I want the bright green Lancia Stratos behind it.

I know it's not actually real, Inf. I agree with you more than you may realize on our current status. GM needs to die among a few other parasitic corporations. My point is that the money that our government is giving people, er, I mean giving the auto makers again is tangible. Weather or not it actually represents currency that was on fair trade is moot. If people think it's real, it is treated as such. Much like the witches were in Salem. Right, wrong, real or fake is all subject to change with opinion. Unfortunately, that opinion is now based on poorly educated worthless speculation instead of scientific fact. And the way that this bill has been written and how it is now being executed shows it's true colors. I could have told you that it would fail miserably, even when I was seventeen. It doesn't take an economic engineer to realize that the money is going in the wrong places. How many times will our government keep dumping money into the companies that caused this problem? We should be rewarding responsible financial behavior and support the companies that create legitimate products and jobs, so that they can continue to create more of the same. How many credit cards will the seventeen year old get before someone is the wiser? This bill needs to die.

This bill has a gigantic loophole in it that will leave it in jeopardy of not actually helping the American public consumers at all. What's the difference between the $3,500-$4,500 in government grants and a $3,000 cash rebate instituted by the dealership on a "push, pull or drag" trade in deal? The difference is that it's not fake money figures being tossed around on a closing agent's desk. This is real money and it's ours. Our tax dollars are now lining the pockets of the dealerships, of the car manufacturers who have already had our tax dollars aiding them. I don't see anything in this bill that protects us as taxpayers or as potential car buyers from the dealerships simply just staking on $3,500-4,500 on to the price of vehicles that apply to the figures of this bill. And if not the full amount of the grant, than certainly a large percentage of it. There is no way to track that kind of activity. Anybody with half of the interested intuition knows that dealerships have a very large cushion of markup that is theirs to do whatever they want with. They can let the potential buyer haggle the price down, bring a trade in of some kind or simply lower the initial price and advertise the sale of the day/weekend/week/month price. Call it what you will, it's all just BS marketting. This bill needs to die. It's a very ill educated paper, written with a completely remote sense of it's basic affects. How many people still live in FEMA trailors? That went over smashingly on paper.

If the quarter side glass rolls down, it's a hardtop. The reference comes from the top being rigid enough to support the glass and center framing structure of the unibody chassis without any solid pillars through the door and quarter window opennings, with or without any kind of vinyl trim. If the car is a 2 door with fixed or pop out quarter side glass (a pillar in place), it is technically a coupe. Very clean car!

A cam and some 3x2bbl carbs, a roll bar and some bolt on wheel flares (with those wider tires and wheels) would go a long way with your scheme. It would make the car less street friendly, but certainly more interesting and for what the car is (far more interesting than a mild street car) it would suit it well. Even if the owner kept the SU carbs with a mild cam and put some air horns on the carbs for display/ show/ cruising in good weather, it would definitely draw some more attention. It already has headers. When I see bright colors and wild paint schemes, I'm almost immediately drawn to the hood latch and what lies beneath. I wouldn't go bonkers and put a saftey switch start and go 100% on the exhaust, fuel cell, etc. Just a few things to make the engine. It's a close representation of the body. The interior isn't right, but it goes with the scheme in a different way. Just a driver/ cruiser that turns heads! I might also see what the car would look like with no rear bumper (albeit keep the bumper and send it with the car), shorter exhaust tips and some black tow/ tie down hooks in place of the bumper brackets. I also love how the headlamp nacelle clear lenses look on these cars and they are only $80-100 or so. It would totally complete the aero package that the car has for little money. Accompanied with some simple yellow tint halogen headlights would really set the car back to the vintage T/A and GT races, but keep it street legal. I honestly think that he could get what he wants for this car easily, definitely more than the final bids with a few simple mods. I polished the cam cover on my car and for some reason, people now seem to think it's faster when they see what's under my crappy bondo filled hood. haha... This car is so close to the complete look and feel of a BRE car, but it needs a few things to complete it.

Monetary value is worthless if your plans are steady ownership. Who cares if it's worth $5 or $50G if it's going to stay with you? So long as you enjoy it, it's up to you. The only way that this car is worth $6k on an open market is if it is a complete and total restoration that was left in a mice infested storage facility of some sort. And it had better be perfect other than the damage from the mice. Something to the tune of a $10-$12k car, but with the damage as stated. The problem with mice is that they don't just damage wiring. They destroy insulation and use any part of the car that they deem worthy for their nesting and toilet. They carry disease and anything that has seen damage should either get a biological cleaning bacteria steam cleaning or removed and replaced entirely. If you can see bad body work under the paint, that alone would nix the six grand figure that he's asking. If you don't mind dealing with the transmission leak and the rodents, see if he would take $2-3k. Quite honestly, I would opt for another car, strictly based on the fact that the owner has his head in the clouds. Which would lead me to believe that he had the same means of quality when it came to doing whatever work he did (and didn't do) on that car... which in a lot of ways is already painfully obvious.

I saw three s30's the other night on ONE episode of Cops. It was on and I hit the pause on our DVR. I cought the wheel well and wondered what it was. Then I saw a wide shot of some dumpy guy face down on the front lawn and it was parked in his driveway behind him. The 2nd one was some dark colored 280z that the driver and passenger bailed from at low speed to continue fleeing on foot... The third one was a white 240 used as a frisking table for a drunk driver. I don't know if it was his vehicle or if he was just wondering the streets, but it was in the parking lot of a Seven Eleven. hahaha... That vehicle in Vanilla Sky was a black Ferrari 250... although I didn't pay close attention to the side window frame and windshield. It could have been a Z conversion. I'll have to look at the movie and see, but I doubt it. That movie production actually shut down and vacated Times Square for the first time in history for the scene with that car in it, so if the producer could afford to pay those businesses, I wouldn't doubt the legitimacy of the use of a real Ferrari from a private collection, museum or high end rental lot.

It's nice to have found a forum dedicated to other classic Datsun/ Nissan Z enthusiasts! I bought a 1972 240 about a month ago and I am in the process of restoring it. I am also a member of Zcar.com and HybridZ.org, although my car is not of the mix and match sort. I restore cars for a living and while I am familiar with rotisserie restorations, this car is clean enough that I will not be going to that length, but I will be cleaning it up from every angle. Here are a few pictures of my $700 machine when I got it.- Over the course of the past month, I have finished the restoration of a few things that will be going back on the car once I have the bodywork and paint completed. I have some pics of the progress. I may start a thread about the resto w/ pics. Take care! Dave

$1,100 for rechroming sounds expensive to me. The bumper shop that I use charges $275 per bumper without custom work. That does include straightening and welding workable damage though. I'm going to build my own stainless one piece bumpers for my car, because I can get the material to do it for a lot cheaper than it would cost for me to buy these. I'm considering making mine from lighter gauge stainless for weight reduction. Stainless steel of the same thickness will also resist damage far better and repair easier than any copper/nickel/chrome plated mild steel. And how the stainless polishes out depends entirely on the person running the sanding and polishing equipment. I restore cars for a living and I have to restore my own trim, because the turn around for most trim specialties is insane and the cost of chrome plating small parts (which most bumper shops will not do) is also an arm and a leg with horrible turn around time. I'm considering offering it up for a service. If I do end up getting the materials for this project soon, I'll post some pics. My friend will be CNC plasma cutting my patterns for this project. these bumpers should be relatively easy to make from flat stock within reason. We'll see.