Av8ferg

Inflation is upon us and in my opinion it’s not going away soon. I think the Fed got spooked when they saw back to back months of inflation at ~7%. Sitting on the sidelines to buy something is going to cost you. I knew I had to do it now. I’m happy with the product too. A couple minor install issues with screw alignment but nothing insurmountable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here are pics You can that lares in the red circle where the material isn’t even is going to be hidden under the metal finisher

Jim, so I had been communicating with Ivan at Vintage Dashes for some time. What put me off was the need for a full payment and then 3-6 month wait . I just felt it was ripe for a bad outcome. I don’t like paying up front for long wait back order items, or services to be rendered in the future. I’ve been burned before. I sent Ivan a message again two weeks ago and he said he has 2 “blem” 280z dashes. Sent me videos and pic and the minor blem was under the metal finisher. Honestly I can’t ever tell it’s there. I paid $1100 and paid for shipping using my company discount. I think the dash looks a great BTW. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Zup, glad I’m helping where I can. I couldn’t complete this “return to the road restoration” without the fine folks on this forum. I’m indebted to many of you. Also I’ve made some friends here and that’s keeps me motivated to keep pushing to get this car back on the road. Lots of set backs, wait times for parts and repairs. But I try to not let it get to me. Example: I just called the paint shop about my Air Dam . They’ve had it almost 4 weeks. The guy told me the painter age 32 died during the last ice storm when he slipped and ruptured his spleen. Terrible news and a sad loss of life. How can I be frustrated, with that. His name was Andy. Just got to take all the set backs in stride. The goal is ZCON and I’m not sure what will be the limiting factor….my car or my wife 🤨 Today I’ve pulled the dash apart to install the new Vintage Dash. I had some rust areas on the frame and I couldn’t stomach putting a new dash over a slightly rusty frame . So I Sanded, primed and painted it. Now I hope I remember how this all goes back together. My old dash literally split in half on removal.

So, I was fortunate that a member on here was kind enough to cut and use a special tool to flare the pipe end so now I’ll have a easy 90 deg turn. It was the best solution but I just didn’t have to tools to do it. Great to have awesome people come to your rescue.

Jim, that might be possible but that mounting bracket would probably interfere. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got the heater box all back together but ran into another problem. The heater core pipes are too long and will cause a kink in the line without cutting it down. I don’t have a pipe flare kit and with a flared end on the pipe I’m probably inviting a leak. Ylu can see in the pics what I’m working with . I also put a pic of the stock set up before removing everything. You can see the pipe on the core closest to the firewall is a 90 deg bend immediately after leaving the heater box. My pipe on the new core is ~3” longer so the bend is now a problem.

Made some progress on the heater core box mod to accommodate the Spectre aftermarket core. Followed Captain Obvious’ write up on this. In the pics you can see the aluminum shelf I had to install to fit the thinner heat core. Hopefully will have this all back in shortly so I can start the work on my new Vintage Dash swap out. Here are pics of the heater box and the mods. Once I get the valve bracket and valves attached I will take it to the auto parts store to find hoses that will work. Stock hose won’t work now because of where these new core pipes enter and exit at different locations than stock. Question: I’m making an assumption that it doesn’t matter which pipe is and “in” and which is the “out” on the Spectre Heater Core. It made no mention of this the the supposed paperwork. Anyone know?

I agree, I prefer to do as much of my own work as I can. There are certain items I try and leave for people that are really good and experience and proper and proper equipment. The fuel tank renew requires lots of specialized equipment and chemicals do really do it right and it’s cost prohibitive to have all that for 1 tank. I really can’t bake my tank to put it into a acid bath and the weld up lines etc…. Same with this valve, I’d probably ruin it if I tried to bring it back to life and in the end cost myself more money and time.

Incase you forgot the before pics, I’m reposting. The now look almost new.

Just got back from a grueling 10 day trip. UK, France, Israel…..painful event with Covid protocols. France and Israel have a green pass policy for any dining etc. They wouldn’t accept my CDC card. Total BS what these people are living under. UK is now wide open While I was gone my Heater Valve came back refurbished and it came out great. Total cost to include his shipping to me was $90. See pics. He also tested my AC vacuum valve with it. It was good.

When the supply-demand ratio is out of whack like it is companies don’t need to earn your business. It’s a take it or leave it mentally. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have/had the same problem. My right side seemed twisted up too. I got most of it fixed by leaving it the sun and then I put the car on my lift and tied a bungee cord around that twisted side to the lift to pull that side down. Had it under tension for about 3 days. It’s still isn’t perfect but I think it may get better as time goes on . It has to be a glitch in the manufacturing process. My air dam is currently off being painted to match the car but here is a pic of how it looked after tried to fix it. You can still see the right side it slightly twisted up and a smaller gap on that side. I plan to build a reinforcement system behind the air dam at a later date. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you can be jailed for tax evasion. We are living in historic times for so many reasons. I read the book “The Next 100 Years” by George Friedman, his predictions are not comforting. All of societies paradigms and norms are being upended and most of us are unprepared and will be caught with our pants down. The looming financial tidal wave coming will be most profound. We’ve attempted to borrow our way out of everything and this can’t go on forever. The divide between the poor and wealthy Is widening. Most of the stimulus and QE has benefited the super rich and corporations. Then we have companies that only care about the bottom line to appease the shareholders, while selling your data. All your information you’ve given Google and other companies is stored. Every text, email, website you visited, what you bought, were you go is in a database and all the photos you uploaded into the “Boobs Thread”. Google was hired by intelligence agencies to make a program that allows them to access these databases for criminal activity and terrorism. The problem is the software can be unleashed on anyone if the powers at be decide to charge the rules. Look how the government has abused FISA section 702 or the drone strike against Anwar Alaki by Obama. This was a US citizen born in the USA, albeit a bad guy but, we cannot assassinate a US Citizen, US citizens are protected and afforded due process under the constitution. I only bring that up to point out that we have to be careful what allow our government to do under the guise of safety and security, The NSA has a data center in Utah is 1.5 million sqft. All for storage of our data. Cliff, keep paying your taxes…not paying is a losers game. You win by standing up and making your voice and vote heard. Plus who is going to keep the library in order if you’re in jail?

Mark, it’s worse than that. These companies have tremendous power and Google is by far the worst player. I recently stopped using the Google browser because it a massive data collection machine. Cliff, you have a profile with these companies as we all do. This is one way they get access to your number Android is way worse than Apple. Android phones are constantly collecting your data and uploading it to Google every couple minutes. Apple has allowed user to disable all tracking but if you use Safari well unfortunately it uses Google as it engine. Chrome…again a Google company. We don’t know the trap we are all walking into and there is no way out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

“They” are Google. You are Google’s product and “They” sell your data. Apple takes privacy more serious that Google. Google uses you data to target you for advertisers, they sell you location and preferences for lots of money. Real world example that happened to me. 2 yrs ago I was at a mall with my wife, she wanted to buy Christmas gifts for out kids teachers and we walked into Bath and Body Works. I hate that store and hadn’t been in there in 5+ yrs. I was in the store 3 mins, told my wife,I’d meet her at a different place. That evening I got an email from Bath and Body Works offering me a 20% coupon. I had never received an email from them before. Google, knew my email, my location and they know your phone number.

Cliff, thanks I would get about 2 calls a day. I do the same. Immediately block the number. I now never pick up a number I don’t recognize. Their latest tactic which began about a month ago is calls are coming in with names coming up with the number. There is a tell tale sign it’s a scam and that is the name will have all capital letters. You may have answered calls where nobody was on the other side. I think these are probing calls from a computer to see if someone picks up. So when you get a call hit “Decline” never pick up unless you know the number or of it had capital letters in the name . Also if you have an Apple phone you can select to have all unknown numbers silenced. If you have a android phone, throw it in the trash…you are being constantly monitored and recorded just in case you didn’t know. That’s not BS. I can’t tell you how I know that but let’s say I have people in my circles that work for 3 letter organizations. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That’s great. Shipping is Fubar and associated demand is contributing to inflation. Covid is impacting operations with drivers, handlers and pilots. I’m I at work right now and schedule has modified for 5 straight days due to crews getting Covid. Planes and trucks are packed to the seams, and recent weather is making it worse, Glad you got your rotors. My paradigm has recently changed with parts. If it’s available….and you will need, it even if not for some time, buy it now. It won’t get cheaper nor will the shipping,

Those looks nice…it appears the supply chain issues haven’t impacted brake rotors. Of note, many think the the rotor cuts face rearward but the actually go the other way. The rotor in the picture you provided should go on the drivers side.

Thanks for making me smarter Bruce. I didn’t really know what that device did just was my understanding that it was only put on CA Spec cars. I really don’t think the guys working at the inspection garage will be able to tell of the car is CA spec anyway.

Here’s another way to tell if your car is CA spec. It will have a Altitude valve (not sure what it’s called but it has something to do with EGR vacuum based on altitude). I removed mine. Circled in yellow in the pic. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My car is a CA spec car. I have replaced my entire exhaust because I live in NC and all cars 35+ yrs old are exempt for all state inspections. I have the old exhaust and all the shields. I was going to sell the cat to a junk yard. They buy and sell them to recyclers for the platinum and palladium which are why these things are so expensive. Let me know if you need any of this stuff. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I looks like zcardepot sells one just like Zup showed. Unfortunately, that won’t work for you Jeff with your space constraints. It’s all metal and seem to look okay. Has anyone out there ever used this one. Apparently it works fine for both sides too.

Saw this today. Our Zs are easy to steal…unless you try to steal mine which currently has no dashboard or seats 😂. I suspect this car could pop up somewhere for sale.

I like that mirror….it’s all metal which is good. Most are plastic crap, I asked a guy on EBay about ones for sale like the green Z pic I posted above, plastic ones were $68 but he had one metal one and wanted $450 pounds for it….uhhhh no thank you.