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I never posted it because the pictures were soo bad. I will be carpeting the floors of a '73 in a few days. I will take new(and better)pictures and post the article then. Will

My turn to stir! I have used Castrol GTX 20/50 in all of my Zs untill a couple of years ago. I had a friend who is an engineer at Gulfstream tell me that Rotella 20/50 has the absolutley best set of additives out there. He backed it up by telling me that they are the same additives That Gulfstream uses and reccommends for use in the Rolls Royce engines that move those $20,000,000 aircraft. He gave me a bunch of facts, and finished up with "and you can buy the gallon containers at Walmart." With his endorsement, I switched to Rotella(a Shell product). Will

While I recognize all of the effort, the time, the energy, and the quality of the work, but I gotta say... "Catepillar makes a Snowplow about the same color with a whole lot more horsepower." I just can't understand the ricer mentality. Will

Joel, middle grade for the Dodge and the Volvo go for 1.74 a gal, 93 for the Z is 1.94-unless I fill up on Tuesday-1.89. I have a first cousin who was with the Nal't Park service, the family spent 2 years or so in your neck of the woods-their take was that there wasn't much more beautiful, but the because of the economy and what it did to the locals(real or percieved) it was truely a paradise to visit, but not a paradise to live in. Will

Carl is right, follow Mr. Scotts advice, multiply the time you think a project will take by three, and you will be three times as likely to be close!! I couldn't remember the name of the book, but it is the one to follow-a few things have improved, and the club will keep you aprised of that. Will

Nate, 1)Find and remove all traces of rust, use abrasion, chemical eradication, and replacement metal whenever necessary. (Eye ear, breathing, and skin protection first, then, die grinder with sanding pads, Metal Ready(or Ospho), a welder(oxy acet or mig-but you will have more uses for oxy-acet, if you get into it)pre formed panels or 18G sheet and a set of ballpien hammers-they make great dollies as well) Be forewarned, rust hides when you go looking for it. "My next project" hid some of the nasty car cancer under the sound deadening-didn't find it until I started peeling up the stuff-It could be patched, but... I will be ordering new floors and stiffners from Zed Findings when the owner gets back next week-I prefer to do things once and right as well. When you have every spec of rust off of your Z, then we will get to #2 I have a '72("My next Project" in my gallery) that I am getting ready to start on-I have almost stripped the interior, hopefully the engine and Tank will come out tomorrow). I will be going through it with my version of "the right way." I have a rotisserie coming from a member here-chime in Ken-and my car will be going shiney side down(not on the ground) so that I can "do things the right way" more comfortably-remember how you got your heater fan out? I will be videotaping the progress, and posting on my site and here-there will be some lag time for editing-2 hours of scraping undercoating off isn't bad when you are doing it, but I don't want to bore anyone into a coma! Will P.S. I am not making ChittyChittyZbang!

Joel, I guess living in Hawaii, you might want some where else to vacation! Come on Down! We don't have the lush beauty of a volcanic tropical island, but we do have some very beautiful places. We have a nationally recognized Historic district, Tons of Movies have been filmed here, We have several outrageous world renound restaurants, the largest Art school in the world, and much more! If you get this way, let me know, and I'll see that you get in on some of the local secrets! Gema, ever heard of ChittyChiityZbang? Now there is an article for HybridZ! Fedex flys cars around all of the time, if Joel drove to the plane, sat in the Z with the engine running in the plane, and drove on to Savannah, would he not have driven here? I ask because I drove to Okracoke,N.C., and I had about and hour on a sea-going ferry in that same predicament. The "road" moved relative to its' foundation, but the car didn't move relative to the "road". Maybe different because the DOT does not operate Fedex-even though they do use them! Will

Well? Where are the pictures? Congratulations, you have had a road full of potholes, and a busted tire or two to get there! Will

I want it, I can send paypal quickly, Will

Jason, You might give Mickey a call at Asian Automotive here in Savannah, 912 356 1616. He usually has a bunch of Zs needing homes, if you would like, I will go by, see what he has, and get you some pictures of anything interesting. Will

Welcome Joel-the intent to get a Z is enough-for now. When the time is right one will come your way, and take you off in the sunset! Until then learn all you can, participate when the mood strikes, and enjoy the club! Will

When I was young and an easy mark for marketing campaigns, I tried all of the stuf that came out and said it was better, I don't remeber how much money I spent to find this out(but I'm sure I could have had one hell of a paintjob.): If the rest of your ignition system is up to par, L-series engines run best on clean NGK plugs. Will

Any Z is better than no Z, and a well maintained Z is worth more than a basket case-regardless of the years involved. If you think a 69 is better than a 72, or vice versa-that is an opinion, and it is valuable, but not necessarily correct to anyone but you. Lets keep the energy on the cars, and not on trying to make our opinion to be the only one that is right. Nissan had the opinion the all of the S30s cars were lacking, or there would have been no changes other than those mandated by the government! If we all did things the pureist way, Kats car would not be the rarity it is. I appreciate all of the work he has done to make his car as original as it is-that is truely an amazing thing. I would not spend that much energy on originality. I want to spend a lot more time with my car under power, than sitting in the garage. That is my opinion, and it is right for me, but I fully appreciate the fact that Kats opinion is different, and leads him to a different, and very respectable end. If you get the chance to own and enjoy a Z-any Z, I am glad that you got the opportunity, and more importantly, the enjoyment-especially when your goals for your car are different than mine. I could learn something from you, our ideas are not carbon copies of each other because our opinions lead us to spending time and money differently! I have certianly learned from Kats! Will

Try some warm water and Whisk detergent, it works on my wheels and tires! Will

Clear coating is frequently problematic, Silver is pretty chemically reactive, and suitable topcoats are not very durable-that is why most sterling and silver plate is not topcoated-sort of like finishing wood-urethane is very durable, but is very hard to repair well, orange shellac is not nearly as durable, but is quite easy to repair well. Will

Skip, Silver tarnishes, and the tarnish stains everything you touch. I have a thin sheet of Sterling Silver that would probably take an impression of an emblem, I might Play with that Tonight-sounds interesting!Most of the shifter emblems are nickle plated, and then enameled. I asked about the green woods because I have heard that burls are much less prone to fall apart if turned while green-I was going to give that a try-but haven't gotten there yet! Will

I hope to cast and enamel a series of Z items-including emblems for the top of shifter knobs-one that parallels the center portion of a late 240 quarter-window vent. Will

Skip, Are you turning green(not yet properly dried) wood? Will

Too cold to drive a Z with no heat? What are you thinking? It gets Cold here in GA too-at least when we open the freezer! Now you know what a "Snowbird" is... Check your fluid level, check the valve under the dash-what year is the Z? If you have factory EFI, you could have a vacuum leak, probably at the vacuum valves on the pass.side of the Eng. compartment. With that car, giving a ride to someone warm and soft should not be a problem! Then you might even have to roll down the window! Will

Hard brass or the harder alloys of aluminum(6061, Fortal) would work great. It looks like the inserts I pulled are made of softbrass-already repaired with a helicoil- or Zamak, and are glued in using epoxy or silicone. I am setting up a home foundary. As I get closer to completion-a month or so, I will see about casting some inserts using a M8x1.25 bolt as a core. It might take away the need to thread a hard to hold insert. Will

I pulled a couple of worn shifter knobs at the wrecking yard to get the inserts. They fit right, they were designed for the purpose, and I got to see how they were fastened-don't want a new turning to crack from having too small of a fitting hole. Reverse engineering is cheeper than trial and error! Will

POR 15 has a companion product called MetalReady which is a Phosphoric acid based treatment. It etches the new metal in preparation for using POR 15. POR 15 is not UV stable, and even under a car will fade. If you use POR15 for that area, I would coat it with another POR 15 companion, Hardnose paint to keep the color right. Alternatively, use MetalReady, then get a Urethane Truck Bedliner Kit, and treat the underside of the floors with it-be very aware of the thickness when you are close to mounting locations-you don't want to introduce missalignment when you bolt the suspension back in! The bedliner will also add mass to the floor panels and allow them to absorb a good bit of road noise! Will

Normally, you can replace the headlight bulbs from the top front of the car-the retainer rings are loosened with a #1 phillips screwdriver (don't take the screws out-just loosen them a few turns), then the ring is rotated a few degrees and comes out, allowing the bulb to follow it. This works, but be vewwy careful of your paint! Will

Unless you just happen to step into it, $500 will get you a car you will absolutely have to work on...and on, and on, and on.... A decent and driveable Z with a little cancer, and a few more aggravating than needed repairs, usually starts at about $1,500. It is a whole lot more fun to work on a car that can take a spirited drive around the block when frustration sets in. Will It isn't too hard to find a running sacrifice to the rust God for that $500, but unless you are a decent metal fabricator with free materials, a new set of floors and frame rails will run about $450 before installation, and then you have to hope the rust has not invaded other areas that you can't see! Good luck though-occasionally we all find a diamond in the rough, more often, it is just the rough we find. Will

Didn't we all learn that you don't upgrade a car as a monetary investment, but as an enjoyment investment-the owner of this car missed that class. I am very impressed by the amount of work, but It just isn't even close to what I would have done... The owner must not have gotten enough fun out of the car, and thinks somebody owes him for all of the work. I have never heard of using an invitation to join in a local car show as an indication of value. I am invited to the Tour D'elegance at Amelia Island every year, but that has nothing to do with the $value of my '73 Z, most of the cars there are over $75k, with many over a million. The interest value is what sparks the invitation-different sparks interest, hence the invitation. I sometimes am interested in looking at totaled sports cars-but that does not mean I will pay more for one than a pristine and "original" version of the same car. This car must have hit a ricer just right-depending on who you ask! Will BTW, that car is NOT Department of Transortation street legal. It has no side markers, and the front combination lights and rear combination lights are not in the line of sight from a t-bone view. its date of manufacture requires one of the two. The headlight covers are usually left alone, though technically keep the car from being street legal as well.