Carl Beck

Hi Bob: It was great getting to meet you and your wife - finally in the physiclal world. Likewise - several of the Z Car nuts I've gotten to know only in the virtual world of the Internet. I'm only sorry that the activities of the Event keep me too busy to spend the time I would like to have had with everyone in person. It is an event that really should last two days at least. So many wonderful cars, so little time to see them. Anyway, I'm glad you could make this year. Surrounded by so many Ferraris and Porsches it was good to have some Z People around!! FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Rob: Yes - I bought a Freedom brand 8.5'x20' enclosed, V-Nose. Found a local Dealer that would meet the Internet Pricing. $4095.00 plus $200.00 shipping to Tampa, Fla. With Sales Tax and Tag etc. it was about $4698.00 out the door. Strong full box triple tong and frame, 1" x 1.5" steel tubing welded upper structure. 3/4" plywood floor, 5/8's side walls. Load ramp with 16" extension, 4 5000lb tie downs... For the price it's a pretty good trailer for the money - towed very stable... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Donna: The more you drive the car, the longer you keep, it the more you'll love it. It's impossible to tell from the pictures - however it looks like a pretty good car to start with. So after the initial joy and happiness works it way through you - - it will be time to take a deep breath and let the logical side of your brain take over. First Step Is Critical Assessment: Really go over the car with fine tooth comb. If you have a friend that knows something about cars, or perhaps you can get a local Z Car Club member to assist - - you want to take a note pad and go over the car from the front bumper to the rear bumper and NOTE every thing you observe that is anything less than it should be. Be really critical - the idea here is to document all the flaws, so later you can determine what all will need to be corrected, assign some reasonable cost to it and start planning for the cars future. Second Step Is Preservation: -Get the car up on a lift - and inspect the undercarriage. STOP any surface rust NOW. -Take that battery out - and clean the area under it and around it, stop any surface rust and repaint to protect the metal. -The bumper look to be in pretty good shape - take them off and clean inside them, and again stop any surface rust - put a protective coating of paint inside them. You may want to later send them out to be straightened and re-chromed. - Pull all the carpet and padding out - check the floorboards etc - and again stop any surface rust - repaint to preserve... - Clean all the diamond pattern vinyl and plastic panels - they look to be in pretty good shape. Get them very clean, Armor-All them and then take care to protect them when using the car. - The Tail Lights look to be in pretty good shape - carefully clean them and polish the chrome strips. These are getting very expensive... so get them clean and put a coat of wax on them to preserve them. - get a friend - a few bottles of brake fluid - and flush the brake system. Do the clutch as well. Clean and flush the cooling system as well. On and on and on - clean and preserve, clean and preserve, clean and preserve. You can spend a couple hours a few evening per week, perhaps 6 to 8 hours per weekend... Third Step - Start Gathering Needed Parts and Finding Needed Vendors/Suppliers/Service Providers: As you have now gone over the car and made notes, and you are now looking at every detail as you clean and preserve - - - start gathering all the parts you will want to, or need to, replace. Stock pile them over the next year or two if necessary. Also start getting recommendations for good body shops in your area. Talk to people at car shows, look their cars over and take notes... get recommendations. At some point - you may want to completely refresh or even restore that car. "Refresh" is more likely because it is getting VERY expensive to do an actual restoration today. All-in-all the car looks to be in pretty stock and original condition. While the engine compartment is dirty - it looks like it hasn't been molested. The original metal fan has been replaced with the lighter plastic version (a good thing for a street driven car). The original Dealer Installed A/C looks to be in place etc. Overall it looks like you have a pretty good early Z there.. You can clean it up and drive it as is for a couple years and later you might want to take it to the next level... Plan your work and work your plan.. Good luck, Carl B.

Friday evening we were starved... So we went one of the restaurants in the Ritz-Carlton for dinner. Only to find out that reservations were required, and without them the waiting list was about four hours long. The Hostess told us that we could get something to eat in the Sports Bar, as we could order off the Cafe menu there. So there we went. The Sports Bar was not too busy, but all the table were taken, so we decided to just sit at the bar. A few minutes after we ordered - another couple came in and sat at the bar with us. I thought I recognized the guy, but just couldn't pull the name from memory. You know how it is when you see someone you know, but just can't place them or remember their name quickly enough. We spoke briefly, and give them our copy of the Cafe menu - and I kept thinking that he would say something that would key my memory.... something like "I saw you at the Cleveland Convention" or "aren't you from Clearwater"... After about 10 minutes it hit me - "Is your name Chip?" I ask him. "Yes" he replied. "Foose?" I continued. "Yes", he replied!! Da.. no wonder he didn't recognize me, he didn't know me from Adam. I had to laugh.... Anyway - Vicki and I had dinner with Chip Foose and his wife. So we talked about all manor of Design, Automobiles, Kids, Dog's and life in general. Very down to earth couple and it was a real pleasure to met them both. Ah Amelia.... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi John: I was standing at the front door to the Convention Hotel minding my own business - when the group of girls came out. They were throwing a bachlorette party for one of their friends. They were wound-up... Having a daughter of my own, and always loving young girls - I started talking to them. They thought they were going to shock this old man, but of course that isn't possible... So I started joking with them and teasing them a bit .. and we had a good time exchanging stories while they waited for the bus to take them bar hopping in Cleveland. One of the girls sent me the picture the following week and said they had a great time. I had told her that she had to send me a picture because my daughter would be mortified.... she knows how I tease or harass her friends... So yes - Vicki saw the picture and was not at all surprised and yes - my daughter was mortified... eyes rolled.... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi RJ: THOUSANDS... Most of the pictures I was able to take - I took before the crowd got too large, and when people weren't standing in the picture. Perhaps Will or John took some pictures of the people surrounding the car. NO - someone showed up with a Dayton Coupe - prehaps the best example of the design. It is planned to be sold in the next couple of months and they expect it to sell in the $10M to $12M range. It was great to have two of Peter Brock's cars there... but even if it hadn't shown up - there was a Porsche 906 to contend with. I had no illusions of winning any awards - - just getting a Datsun 240-Z sitting in that company was more than enough for me. We had a fantaistic time - and it was a dream come true. We had a goal of getting Datsun 240-Z's into the Countries Highest Level Concours Events and Classic Car Shows - starting around 2003. ZULAYTR { aka Bob Speights} and Dan Banks have also worked hard toward that goal, and their 240-Z's and efforts should not be overlooked. Many of the Ferrari owners and one person with a Jag. 220 were among the most welcoming and enthusiastic about seeing a 240-Z there. Several told me that they either still have a 240-Z, had one, or were planning on adding one to their collections. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Will: I was laughing so much I had to stop typing, as I constructed that report. Sorry to say that was the only picture that Vicki and I had time to capture of that activity. Nonetheless, you look good there.... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Steve / everyone: I agree that I should not have said "at the carb venturi"... that should have said "just past the carb venturi"... better still I should have used the term "ported vacuum". After reading countless articles related to manifold vs ported vacume and finding widely differing views, I begain to realize that in most cases the individual views were dependant upon a limited number of engines, or a limited number of "hot setups" for specific cars. All, focused almost entirely on what happens to manifold and/or ported vacuum signals at different throttle positions or engine loads. Only one considered the entire timing advance system. The entire timing advance system includes the technical spec.'s of the vacuum advance mechanism being used, and the signal strength range it covers. So I do not agree that you can use manifold vacuum just fine. Unless one also makes the stipulation that the vacuum advance mechanism, as well as possibly the distributor timing curve are then matched to the manifold vacuum signal. The vacuum advance mechanism on the Z is designed to work with the ported vacuum signal of the S.U.'s. Depending on the configuration of your engine, the intake manifold used the stock vacuum advance mechanism may or may not pull in all the advance at idle when hooked to manifold vacuum. It may or may not allow the timing to retard enough at cruise either. In that case - the safe thing to do, might be to use no vacuum advance with the triple carbs and the associated intake manifold - and make adjustments to the static timing and distributor timing curve - that you can control. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Gang: I’ve published some pictures and captions from the Amelia Island Concours this past weekend, on the Z Car Home Page. It was just faster/easier to put the large photo files there, along with the proper captions. If your interested see: http://ZHome.com/Amelia09/Amelia09BREZ.htm I’ll be adding some side stories about the trip and the Event a little later to this Thread... so check back.. FWIW, Carl B.

Outlined in the article written by Steve - and as Posted a #4 above. See the 4th page. http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/240SX5spd/transmission.htm FWIW, Carl B.

I've seen it done. Usually done because the 280Z dash is deeper than the 240Z dash, so the 280Z dash has room for the factory A/C. Of course you have to also change the center console to mate up with the dash. It's a good swap if you want good A/C and don't care about keeping the 240Z original. FWIW, Carl B.

I don't know if you overpaid or not. If you got what you wanted, in the condition you wanted, when you wanted them - then a couple hundred one way or the other really doesn't matter that much. The Dellortos are basically the same as the Webers, but I think you have a wrong price comparison. The Webers being more common, usually sell for between $450.00 and $550.00 {at least several that I've seen go though E-Bay that actually sold}. At any rate - I don't believe that you can use manifold vacuum for the distributor advance. When you go to wide open throttle - manifold vacuum drops; while a vacuum signal taken at the carb venturi increases. It an increased vacuum signal that is used by the vacuum advance on the distributor. So the seller may have screwed up the intake.. Hard to tell from the pictures, but the intake runners look like the shorter version - good for constant high speed use, but not so good for a street driven car. FWIW Carl B.

The auto-redirect is so that Members and Visitors are switched over to a highspeed Fiber Optic link. That should make downloading pictures, graphics etc just fly. {depending on your network speed on the other end.} FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Mike: Yes, that is closer - I'd make that rear section that flips up - a fold down loading ramp.. That way one wouldn't have to screw with setting up the loading ramps, and the angle of loading would be lower/safer. But yes - they have closer to the idea.. thanks, Carl

Hi Bill: Yes... I talked to Dr. Bill tonight. I'll just have to make sure I don't pull in anywhere that I can't also pull though.!! Even my son has a hard time backing this monster up... and he's pretty good at trailer backing.. Let the adventure begin... See you there Sunday. FWIW, Carl B.

Ah... the Girls from the Cleveland Convention... Now this was a wild groupLOL ..... and yes, Jim is too modest:finger: FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Big... Your always welcome - I tell people to wear old clothes for the visit, we'll more than likely be in the garage. kind regards, Carl B.

Hi Will/everyone: We'll be leaving Clearwater around 10:00 AM Friday - and should be on Amelia around 4:00PM or so. Looking forward to seeing everyone Sat. Morn. - Long range weather forecast looks promising this year... Thanks for setting all this up... Carl B.

Hi Ron: If I were planning on hauling the car around more than just a couple times - I might have been willing to spend the additional $10K to $12K. No question the BRE Trailer is impressive. FWIW, Carl B.

I bought an 8.5'x20' enclosed car hauler.... it's HUGE!! I'll be looking for people with trailer backing skills - once I get there...:stupid: Tomorrow I'll be out shopping for a wireless rear view camera/display as well. Which reminds me - I need to call Bill Coffey to see if I can take him alongLOL I just pray for good weather this year - ie. no strong winds... FWIW, Carl B.

2 each NOS access panel clips for the very early cars {plastic} - I don't have anything that will give an accurate weight, but I doubt they weigh more than an ounce... $256.00 plus shipping as I recall.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi David: The concept drawing is pretty much on target related to size and shape. I would want hard sides however because of security. While it isn't much more secure - it's a good feeling to know the car is locked inside the trailer when you have to park at a motel for the night. Canvas sides are to easy to cut through without making much noise... Make the nose out of carbon fiber - and put a hinge on it so it folds up enough to work under.. and we're in business. Might have to make a ramp door that double folds.. so it is long enough when down to keep the load angle low.. Ideal would be an aluminum trailer... to keep the total weight down, but that might drive the cost too high. Nonetheless a small single purpose trailer like that shouldn't weight much more than 2000 lbs even if built with steel/plywood. Perhaps just make the nose out of aluminum to make it light enough to lift up easily. After I get back from Amelia - I might talk to a local trailer manufacturer to see if it is economically feasible..... Might be a great trailer for all small sports/gt's that are growing in popularity as Classic's today... It would also have the advantage of being able to be hidden from view by the typical 6' fence around most homes today... FWIW, Carl B.

Just so we don't assign somewhat misleading uses and motives to the equipment itself - the fact that one could use it for the auto hobby, doesn't mean it was intended for the rich and famous. Nor should we expect it to stay as expensive in the future. Building design and engineering prototypes has always been a very useful and in many cases necessary process. One that has always been time consuming in both actual work hours and more importantly total project schedule... Being able to scan existing components, to rapidly build a 3D data base that can be modified to reflect design changes, or altered into completely new products can save a lot of time and money in the product development cycles. It can also cut the time needed for all manor of engineering analysis model builds, to feed simulations etc etc. Likewise "printing" a prototype part in hours presents the potential to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in prototype build costs, and reduce schedules from weeks to hours. Building them in plastic, on the spot in the engineers office, and providing the ability to support many iterative changes/improvements etc - is amazingly cost effective. This "stuff" didn't start out being equipment for Jay's Garage... it's just that with the constant advancement of the technology - it has now made it inexpensive enough to find thousands of other uses in every day life. Compared to the 50's and 60's - most of us have super computers sitting on our desks today.. FWIW, Carl B.

Oh... I guess I had it in my mind that it was blue based on one of the first pictures you posted... Hard to belive that was green at one time.. But your right - I had it confused - with the car that had some interior pictures showing the original blue paint and white interior... So Candy it is.... FWIW, Carl B.