Ricklandia

Stephen's on the mark - MG Midget/post-Bugeye Austin Healy Sprite. I had a 67 Sprite - what a fun little car that was, and I do mean little.

Question: Are intermitant wipers all that necessary, especially if it means possibly butchering the wiring? If I might make a suggestion - living in South Florida, during the rainy season (6 months out of the year) it will rain virtually every day; from a quick light drizzle, to uber-rain, to everything in between. Because of this, I am a firm believer and longtime user of "Rain-X" windshield glass treatment. Not only does it tend to keep the windshield cleaner (IMHO), but it also makes the wipers basically unnecessary at speeds over 45mph. Even at lower speeds, it makes the need for wipers "an occasional thing". Frankly, most of the time I never both to use my wipers at all, and I can tell you from experience I pass people constantly who have thier wipers on high and STILL cant see as well as I do with mine OFF. JMHO

Hey Dave, I'm glad to hear you're "back in the business" again, so to speak! I only hope you'll hang with the offer for a little longer. I'm definitely interested but the funds are unavailable at the moment. Hurricane, bank, insurance companie and lawyers... you fill in the blanks I HOPE it all gets settled by summertime so work on the Z can resume.

It got my curiousity up too. I hope this thread can draw some interest. Personally, no way I can afford the cost of a "decent" paint job ($3-4K?), yet looking at my "tomato soup Red" paint job just bugs the :tapemouth out of me. Makes you wonder, someone brought up a good point; how were things (autos, metals, etc) painted before industrial spray painting were common? I've seen any number of metal antiques with brilliant paintwork, and industrial auto spray painting wasn't commonplace until the 1930's or even '40s (?). True, it might be more time/labor intensive than having someone spray the car for me, but if the article holds true, most of the paint work can be done in stages. That kind of time I've got - paint a couple of coats one weekend, wetsand the next weekend, etc., etc., until it's ready for a final buffing. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on the original thread to see if it continues to thrive. It does sound too good to be true, but the older I get the more I realize that great ideas are NOT always accepted easily - for many reasons (usually money, unfortunately). I'm even contemplating a little experimenting, I've got an old Sears riding mower that could use a coat of paint, it might be the perfect test bed: it sits outside 365, gets routinely blasted with dust, dirt and stones, and if it ends up looking bad - WHO CARES!!! :cheeky: Addendum: the photo links in the original article/blog dont seem to work, but if you search directly for "69Martin" at Photobucket you can get to them. Here's the link to his photo collection relevant to the thread: http://photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/paint/

Love the mini-bumperette treatment up front. I've had thoughts of that for years (decades). Maybe you might do a little photo story with some close-up details, would love to see more details.

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." -- Vice President Dan Quayle "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 "You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." —George W. Bush, to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005 Ever see those two in the same room, ...at the same time...? Makes me wonder... :paranoid: Oh, and of course my favorite having to be in my signature:

Clipped from an Alfa Romeo Bulletin Board (http://www.alfabb.com) that I frequent - I saw this and thought it might be of use here: Dry - Ice Blasting to remove undercoating --------------------------------------- I saw this a year or so ago in German Classic Car magazines - and was wondering if any of you have any experience with it or know of any companies here in the US (California)? The results are quite amazing and the magazine tests and reviews are very positive. It sure saves tons of work, dust and dirt and your car is clean like new from underneath..... http://www.carblast.de/ (click on "Beispiele" - samples - and check out the different cars - especially the Duetto with 3 coats of undercoating) http://www.trockeneis-reinigung.com/ ************* Anyone here ever heard/tried this technique? I mentioned that the discussion of using dry ice to remove floorpan matting has come up here before, but this is the first I'd ever heard of using dry ice as a blast media.

Interesting... mine is a '73 with dealer installed air. The compressor, after studying this thread, appears to be un upright York unit. Here's the odd thing; although it didnt have a FoMoCo stamp or marking, it did have "Fairmont" painted onto it - suggesting to me that it was a used unit pulled from a Ford Fairmont. I've only had the car for a few months, the system was/is not working as I bought it from the PO, but I havent gotten around to seeing what it needs yet.

Easy - that's why Google exists! Try one like this: http://www.m3lgsvsq.com/?src=ggl One site, fill in the info and you'll get about 10 quotes from various companies. Rates can vary widely depending on how you want it shipped (enclosed or open) and how quickly you need it delivered. The top end ($) shippers specialize in custom/antique/exotic cars and will treat it with "kit glove" service. I had mine shipped from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale (650 miles?), it took a few weeks (open carrier) but they picked it up at the door and delivered it to my door. Cost was ~$450.00, but that was before gas was $3.00/gal

I have Hagerty on my Z and yes, a secure locking storage (garage) is a requirement. You also need to have a full time - insured daily driver car for every licensed driver in the house before you can get the collector status too. But the upside is that there is no mileage limit (i checked and double checked on that - even confirmed that a cross country drive is still considered a pleasure ride as long as I have my daily driver), AND it's seriously inexpensive. I valued my Z at $4K and the premium is only $100/yr. with BETTER coverage than I have on my DD. BTW, I pay more than that every month to insure my daily driver. FWIW, I dont think that Hagerty stipulates that it needs to be YOUR garage (attached or otherwise on your property), so a rental garage might suffice. With the money you'd save in insuring a boring little 4dr. sedan as your DD, it might just cover renting a little garage space too. Hey, where there's a will, there's a way.

Got another suggestion for ya... If you're using it as a daily driver, I'll bet you have quite a bit of insurance on it, yes? Why not buy some POS to run around town in to save on gas (old Honda or Toyota comes to mind), and take your Z OFF regular insurance and put it on COLLECOR CAR INSURANCE (Hagerty's is what I have). The money you'll save on insurance alone, over a couple of years will pay for that POS commuter AND you'll still get to keep AND DRIVE your Z! I'm dead serious. When I found out how cheap it was to insure a collector car, that's what finalized me getting my Z (after YEARS of regretting getting rid of my 260Z!). If you love your Z, and it sounds like you do, my advice is dont sell it, there are other answers.

1965 Oldsmobile 98 - "the Golden Bomber"! Dad insisted on matching my $250 so he could have a stake in it and thus authority to yank the keys from me if I got stupid. Fortunately, that only happened once. Great car, that 400 purred like a kitten, used to have fun tuning the idle down so low you could watch the fan turn around and around with no blur. Brutal on gas during oil embargo days so I worked for nothing more than gas money. A late foggy night, two hippies on drugs, 8 high school jocks in a pickup and a weird story to tie them together put an untimely end to the trusted steed. BTW, I was the third party, not either of the previously mentioned.

K, It's nice to know that your family is willing to stand with you, I think you'll all be glad you did when this little "bump" is over. I gotta admit, I was seriously contemplating giving you a call. I've been casually looking for a car for my son and when I saw your asking price I was very tempted. It would have really been stretching it to get the cash, but the price I felt was a true steal. If the day ever does come that you want to sell your machine, I seriously think you ought to ask around a bit (here) for some local prices to see what you could get. Judging by the rarity and prices asked for here in S. Florida, I'll bet you could have gotten considerably more than what you were asking with no problem.

Yes, you can from inside the car. No need to drop the tranny. The swap is pretty straightforward. Mine were totally missing, new installed bushings took a total of ~30 minutes to perform.

Problem solved.

Many humble thanks.