c david

http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

did you know you can tighten your timeing chain without removing the front engine cover? the driveshafts for the 4 speed and 5 speed are not the same length. you can start, run and stop you early car with 6 or less wires. zcars are the most popular, buy volume sports car in the world. you can drive your car without a brake boost. your l28 with su's will hold 7 gallons of fluid from oil pan to top of valve cover. an after market 240 z airconditioner has been tooled to blow 39 degrees against a 95 degree climate. did you know blowing 39 degrees from an aftermarket a/c is still not enough? you can only buy a control arm for one side of your 240 but you can turn the bushing around to make it fit the other. did you know there is a turbo diesle 240 z that goes 144 mph and gets 40 plus mpg. did you know a v8 in a zcar is like chocolate milk in a wine glass? did know sportz mag deserves much credit and the negative views of thier huge effort is a reflection of no appreciation for the work and donations made by many. did you know that if you swap the wires connected to your ignitor on your electronic distributor, it will simply change the polarity of the signal. did you know you can block off the coolant tube running along side under you spark plugs?

yep, i had hagerty insurance for a year and they are a great option for collector cars that are not being driven more than 3k a year. the company has a very strong presence and large market share of collector car owners. alas, i drive my car everyday (60 plus thousand miles in 3 years); so i use statefarm. cdavid

congrats dreco, i'd like to see some close up pics of your glass trim, emblems and side mirrors. please cd

i saw this video some months ago and it's clear to me they set this up. the guy in the car is lucky the truck driver did not get out with a gun. leading a stranger down a dead end road just to steal a camera ( or for any reason) is a bad idea and is more likely to get you killed by the guy who has already shown a willingness to be a criminal. this video reminds me of the educational "play safe" after school specials. cd

those are very cool, so cool i'll donate a map light lens to chris so he can have them for his car. as it is i take more off my car than i put on so for those of you going to zfest in orlando tell me what you need and i might bring you some goodies to choose from.. cd

sakjiko, if you can buy them for $ 6.00 dollars or even ten times that when the auction ends, i'll pay the shipping and give you a 300 % finders fee... i'm just kidding because i'm sure you are. 350,000 yen is far from $6.00 dollars. i'm posting this so others don't think they are "worthless" now or in a future search of the archives. http://www.bloomberg.com/invest/calculators/currency.html cdavid

http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n44687334 put these on your car and you will be a hero to some and a source of confusion for the rest.. cdavid

dear nurse laura, i have a set of centerline auto drag brushed alumimun wheels and in the past i have listed muratic acid as a favorite tool for many uses. recently i vowed not to use muratic acid for any purpose as it is simply far too caustic and the acid is stronger than needed in most cases. keep your muratic for the pool and look for a product made by duro called aluminum jelly. duro markets this as a screened porch cleaner but is by far the best product i have ever tried on my wheels. it is indeed a light acid but strong enough that after 5 minutes it will leave a dark streak. so try that, follow the label and i hope to see you at the zfest in oct with some good lookin sleds... cd

there are over 1300 models of cars for sale in the us and over 90 % of them out weigh us by 1000 lbs. in addition they are excedingly stronger and are designed to resist cars that are as strong and as heavy as themselves. senario 1. you will walk away concerned about the damage to your car. senario 2. you are seriously injured and have far more to worrry about than the condition of your car. i agree with you. i drive in fear and i fear the guy with the "fear this" sticker. the only protection i have is defensive driving, good breaks, fat tires and a strong new seat belt. i have been employed with federal express as a driver and logged many hundreds of thousands of miles, sometimes driving 250 plus miles a day for weeks on end. i have been trained by career road safety specialist who have millions of miles and 30 years spending 40 plus hours a week working with others who do the same. they give good advice. the bottom line is we are vulnerable on the road and in a car that cannot stand up against a collision with most any other car just forget the trees, walls and even the ground if you get angeled down a ditch. so, strap in stay away from all the stationary objects and have a plan for the drivers who get loose in the rain or loose in the head. i was at my statefarm agent today to put her back on the road as a daily driver. i hope i never have to claim on the policy and hope to never hear a story about a zcar losing an impact battle..... stay safe, cdavid

this is not much of a picture but i had mine made custom. they have spools at both anchor points and i used the coat hanger thread terminal to attach a machined metal post to affix the "slide thru" ( for lack of the correct word ) get many compliments on it and it works very well as a daily driver. next time i might use only one spool..... cd

i was recently asked if i want to buy a rear suspension, struts-breaks. ect by a current scca board leader. if you are interested in his setup send me a pm. used for sure but a winning set up no doubt. cd this logan? yep. http://wspr-racing.com/wspr/results/imsa/imsagt1982.html

some will say the bad one is painless and the good one is painfull. cdave

wow, i am very glad to see such a fine job and well planned project. your detail looks first rate and i think your car is a great example of the wide rangeing mods our cars can handle. i would love to see this car and barter for a ride.... what else will you do to this one? cdavid

my car has stranded me once. i had installed a new gas guage and it read backwards. yes, i often disqualify this incident as the car stranding me because you would think i could recognize gas does not grow in the tank. with the car being a daily driver for 3 plus years and that the only time i could not drive her. i'd say she has always been there for me. all in all at the end of the day after all my busted knuckles and suprises; the bottom line is that it is all the best of fun for me. fixing and or improving the car is part of why i own and drive her. so if i were offered a perfect 1971 example with 10 miles on it and a warranty, it would stand very small next to the value i have for my car. i simply love the problems as they turn into a long history of improvments and hard fought battles where we both win... cdave

i like to say cid, (consider it done) so in this case wiat i wanted tbt (to be thorough) and put the hood up to see all the options for the task at hand. task at hand; allow the car to understand it is in park and thus it has permission to start (shift linkage problem 84 merc 300 d). task over, car starts; now driving and slowly accelerating to about 30 mpg and whamo. the hood lifts and there goes the windshield. see pic below.

yes chris, your mention of the fabled north country takes me back to the days i spent searching for the only known female goth samuri. she was said to be dressed in black but was forced into excile after a spell was placed on her by the dark lord of hasselhoffenoff. he left her with what he though was a curse of shiny new chrome rear bump panels. the males in this region found the symmetry to be very intoxicating and she soon became highly sought after as a symbol of old school factory modification. that was an unsuccessfull short trip between my 3rd and fourth world tours. from those days gone by i chose to chrome my panels in tribute to her legendary beauty. i saw her from a far but i can not verify how smooth she was. indeed she was shaven. enigma, you are correct. when the car was blue, the chrome was more prominent and more fun to look at...... cdave

that is a summit raceing stainless muffler of the flowmaster "style" interior. the headers are msa and powder coated locally with a 40 plus inch glass pac in between. the pipe behind the headers and in front of the pac is stainless steele but my guy could not get his machine to bend the stainless from there to the muffler. oh well, we tried.

http://homepage.mac.com/cdavidwilder/PhotoAlbum33.html cheers, cdavid

http://www.yadamnfool.com/Z_Commercials2.htm

this is the post where i make all the necessary apologies for my selfish random act of sarcasim, but i simply cannot stop laughing. chris, i love ya buddy but dahm if there isn't anything you don't have or know about our cars. live, love and drive cdavid

the watch in the picture is known as the temporate "k" watch. the driver in the photo was wearing the watch to display the manufactuers "new product". this was to be a tv commercial; first run at the 2nd annual (now dissoved) cd2cw autocross event held in hasselhoffenoff, montego. during the filming, the driver (actor) layed the watch on the dash and during a break mr k showed up to approve the use of z marketing.... it is rumored. mr k saw the watch, tried it on and quickly put it back after without a hint of approval but later agreed the watch was worthy of z greatness. i have a photo of the watch being temporaily worn by mr k and it has only been photo shopped a "little bit". i am willing to sell this piece of history for a set of nib rear hatch vents for my 71. the authenticity of my claim can be proven by another photo " only slightly shopped " of me shaking hands with chris wenzel where all of this information was passed to me through osmosis.... first come first serve, c to the d

i want to thank you again carl for introducing me to bobby pratt, it was later infered he would not have taken the job had i not been your friend. thanks vicky, if we plan a brainstorm meeting with chris about the 07 convention i'll drive it so you and scott can see it. to answer your question carl, i have a long list of ideas but only a few are as interesting as the a/c. after talking with you about the frame rails i wisely took your advice and decided to put the evaporator in the spare wheel well. it will be attached to the underside of a board cut to conform to the shape of the hatch floor but end and be straight where the strut towers are closest. this unit is a 1.5 ton after market conversion van fan/heater and evaporator from the "gold mine" i mean junk yard. i bought it for $20.00. if the force is with me i will later have that board raise up to a 30-35 degree angle with some type of electric device. and then lower when the a/c is turned off. turning the a/c off may never happen; have you seen an inconvienient truth? (insert politics here). i have wanted to swap my key fob (ignition) to an 1985 or newer so that i may use a nismo enthusiast key. i think it is a cool way to go. and last, i will likely put on an electric water pump from csr. but just to get it back on the road. i have a 18 circuit wiring harness from painless and new weather strip of course... and the best part of the paint and body mods was shaving the cowl. it's not the best picture online but when the hood goes on it will come to life and i'll show it here... cheers cdave almost forgot. the front spoiler is the msa "no vent" part num 50-1401.

soda blasting is by far the best of the best for stripping anything. i have used a soda blaster to remove 20 years worth of chattahochee sealer on my patio when i lived in fort lauderdale. sodium bicarbinate is a cyrstaline substance and therefore explodes on impact making for far greater efficiency of air and material. the versatility is very wide rangeing as the movie demonstrates. the "soda blast guy" got a feel for the resistance and decided to straf the top layer then return for the bulk of the paint and finished the stubborn spots with a detailed focus. this method allows for the filler or bondo to be saved and or removed. you can take off bondo on top of fiberglass or put a hole through both at the same time. the best reference is that it is soft like a sandstorm from a distance or will burn like a laser when at point blank. all variations in between and be created by angle of attack and lbs per hour. baking soda as sold for this purpose is dirt cheap. you can push your car into a field and blast without needing to clean up or recover the media. a zcar loves this method as it does not use friction to remove the paint, ie the exploding crystals (in all directions btw). the lack of friction saves the terminal realization that your sand blasted car paint removal also warp every panel on the car (due to the heat from the friction) and you have no reasonable way to get your now heavly fatigued metal back into shape. to answer your question. i payed $600 for 4 hours of work at $175 per hour. most of these guys quickly learn that it's far moe profitable to do yachts on a dry dock for three 8 hours days a week rather than 5 car in 5 different locals and all the drama.... so it may be hard to find an upstart soda blaster within 100 miles of a marina. i suggest doing a search for the related equipment and call them to ask who they sell to in your area, always a great way to secure a well trusted tradesman. cdavid

thank you all very much, the link from the number 1 post will take you to a page with other sets of photos and movies showing some of the stages. the most popular and i feel one of the best decisions was to media blast with baking soda. it will be a few weeks before the doors and hood go on as i must install the wiring harness and thermal/ sound barrier. cdave