J, $370 is a BARGAIN!

I'm still thinking the carbon exhaust is a badass idea - and I'm thinking of something here as well. You know that galvanized ducting that is used in a lot of houses? I'd almost guarantee you it's made in 2.5" and 3" diameters - why not have that inside a carbon tube about halfway back on a car, then just use the carbon tube itself the rest of the way? If you want to do some extreme-heat testing, I offer my Rx7 to do the job . 1200* is not uncommon for that car's EGTs just normally driving [albeit running a tad rich at 10:1 AFR ].

Lemme know what you think, J-dawg.

-Dave-O

 

Hmmmm, If only somebody would clear out their PM's that would be possible...

Rod.

 

Yeah yeah, I cleared out a little room today. So PM's are back open. I gotta go through and clear a bunch of those out. $370.00 is the price for now, for you guys. In order to get things rolling and get some parts out there I'm not quoting much profit in there yet. But dont expect the prices to stay this way forever. Eventually I gotta start making a little more money. I mean, anybody that PM's me gets that price. It's not going to change any time soon. (I just hope I didnt screw making that quote ) But I'll always offer lower prices to ZDriver members (no matter what Z it is). D I was thinking that same thing, like putting some sort of insulator between the plug and the resin/carbon. I was thinking like something I could just wrap around the plug.

I spent a good deal of time trying to get the weather strip glue and whatever that other adhesive was (prob. epoxy) holding the rail in place. The rail came off easy but the adhesive left on the T Top was a pain. I tried a scrubing pad: Nothing. Tried 60 grit sandpaper: barely got anywhere after a considerable amount of time. So finally I opened all the windows and sprayed on some of that aircraft remover and came back 15 minutes later and all the weatherstrip adhesive and the other crap just wiped right off (Oh joyous day). So the tops are getting painted today since no more prep is involved. The mold for a part this size has to cure a little longer than that little relay cover did (so it doesn't distort) but thats it, then I can start pulling parts.

So if you tried to PM me then its clear enough for atleast a few of you to hit me up

 

Once you get that red bull We better see some progress

 

Alright, I've got the mold for the relay cover done. I've got two heatshields and a T Top with primer layed on waiting for another coat as we speak. Hows that for progress? And the Redbull's not even here yet Once that gets here I'll bust out the other t top and the hood. Oh yeah, the splash pan is turning into a pain in the ****. I saved it for last thinking peice of cake. Well once I scrapped all the crap off of it it turns out to be a little more battered then I thought. I don't want to pound on it cause I don't want it to distort. So I'm slowly but surely using bondo to fill in all the dents and I'm also filling in all the grooves as well as they wont be needed on a composite part. So thats coming along, slowly. But once the bondo level is raised even with the rest of the pan it'll move along a lot quicker. I'm only doing one top at a time because I need to keep one on the car to hold the plastic in place on top of the car. So when I finish this one I gotta put it back together and pull the other one off. These tops are going fast though. i just took it off the car yesterday and it's already being primered.

 

Great, so where does the line start ??

 

Well s/c has his own line so you get to start a new one

 

Thats right I got all the parts

 

Thanks to a fellow ZDriver, I got the main relay cover going too. I was only working on the relay cover that sits over by the battery on the fender wall to cover the main EFI relay. It's just a cover not a lid. Well I now have the relay cover for the relay block sitting with primer finished. This ones a lid (you know the one shaped like box. This one was cake cause mine was flawless and nothing had to be changed to make it work. So I should be pulling a mold off that in a few days. Once the primer cures completely I can lay on some top coat and once that dries I can sand, polish and lay on the mold.

Also, all this time I though my t tops were leaking cause of bad seals. Well that was only part of the problem. The seals themselves weren't bad. The metal part of the tops was corroding away pretty badly and the sealant wasn't sealing to the corroded parts so water was just leaking right on through. I'm guessing thats aluminum too cause it was corroded not rusted. So all the weight of those tops is almost entirely in the glass. Should have a handful of parts done by the end of the month.

 

Finished up plugs for the brake master heatshield and the other relay cover I mentioned. I'll be starting molds on them soon. The prototype exhaust manifold heatshield is in primer as well as the ttops. I ran out of paint for those two and will get some more tomorrow and finish those up. Oh splash pan is still be massaged into shape. Another couple pounds of bondo got slapped on today and they'll be a couple more tomorrow. It's almost all leveled out though. A few more days and it'll be getting paint too. So things are getting done now.

A little side note: my car is more water resistant with the t top removed then it was when the top was on. Who would've though masking tape and garbage bags could seal up a car so good

 

As I said in a pm, I'll buy whatever you make, except t tops, sorry, hard top over here. My car needs as much pretty stuff as it can get. I started to paint it one color. So instead of 6 different colors, she will be primer black. She still looks like a junk yard escapee, 4 different flat tires and 3 different colors, 1 broken seat, and almost everything in the interior is dry rotted and cracked or missing.

Oh j, can you make sunvisors out of either fiberglass or carbon. I mean just the over all shape. I don't have any sunvisors and all the ones in the junk yard are conviently missing. If there flat and can either be covered or left alone. That would be cool

 

hmm, carbon sunvisors would be a nice touch... I dont recall ever seeing carbon sunvisors... speaking of which, I need a driver side one also

 

I've been thinking about it a little more. A flat piece in the shape would be nice, then either make it fiberglass for those who want it covered in some stock like material, or carbon for the carbon crazy guys, left shiny raw, would look so nice. I guess the hard part would be figuring stock mounting or something.

 

Just mold in the stock hardware and use the stock mounting points.

 

^^ 2nd, a flat piece of cf in the general "origional" shape and size with the stock mounting pieces be sweet

 

So when you say just a flat piece, you mean just a flat panel of carbon (or fiberglass) with the same outline as the original visor? I can make that happen. I just pulled a visor out of my Z and it wont be a problem. I cant see exactly how the hinge thingy mounts to the visor itself, but it appears to just clamp on. I'll cut the outside plastic off later and find out exactly how the the hinge is secure to the visor. Theres just that one screw so I'm assuming it just clamps it in there. But I see no problem making that work on a repro. so the stock mounting can be retained. If you guys want mirrors though you're on your own Eventually if I can find a way to secure small segments of mirror that will fit the visor I can mold the mirror into the visor. But for now, I can get visors fairly quickly.

As far as you go aphrodite, I'll try to hunt down some visors to make Z32 replacements. I guess while I'm at it I might as well track down visors for the S30 and Z31 too. Should be cheap and easy for the Z31. I don't know how easy finding S30 visors will be though. I'll let you guys know as it progresses.

 

Alright I cut the plastic off the visor and got down to the meat of it. I came up with a couple of quandries. One is the matter of the visor clipping into its holder. I'm not talking about the hinge but the actual little clip thing that holds it up so it doesn't flop down. Mounting the visor to the stock hinge hardware wont be an issue. I've already got that figured out. But as far as getting it to clip up there is another story. The part wont be thick enough to stay in the clip. So I will try to mold something in with the carbon, like a very small wooden dowel, so that the area where it clips in will be the correct size to clip in. Of course, fiberglass is always an option. Oh and the dowel wont be visible, it will be under the fabric. It's just to add girth.

Also, when I finally get around to getting all that done, I'll start working on fiberglass OEM replacements. What I mean by that is that I'll make a fiberglass version that is an exact duplicate of the original and simply needs to be reupholstered to look just like the stock one.

Oh and while I was out with the car I took a measurement of the hatch and it's only like 43"-44" wide. So a carbon hatch is completely feasible at this point. I don't plan on starting a project of that magnitude until I get finished with everything I've got going now, but just so you guys know that that is definitely an option. For those who werent around, I cant get carbon wide enough to make a 280ZX hood cause it measures in over 50" wide and carbon wider than 50" is impossible to find right now. ANYTHING can be made of fiberglass however

 

sweet, carbon sun visors... and I dont really care about the mirror, I didnt even know the passenger one had a mirror in it until someone riding in the passenger side pulled it down to look in the mirror (a female of course )

 

My Mirror Fell Off And Now My Girlfriend Just Uses The Rear View When Were Stopped Or On The Freeway.

 

I am un sure as how I would want em. Either covered in a nice vinyl or leather, or the shiny raw carbon weave look. HMMM, I might have to order both and make the decision. And every Z that I looked in, at least 20, all have the visors missing. I finally found the little plastic things that screw into the head liner, to hold em up. So when you get time or energy and make them, add them to my list of wanted things please.

 

J Must Have A Heck Of An Order Form For You Vegaz.
Hey J Hows The Pillar Pod Idea Going?

 

It's still an idea. I have a pillar lined up that I can use to mold the pod from but I was waiting to here a little more feedback on the idea before I dove into that one. It will get done no matter what, but feedback and requests are whats driving the work that gets done soonest. Someone requested a relay cover and now its going into the molding stage tomorrow. I've got a large order from one person already and I'm working on his parts first and foremost. The only reason that relay cover got done so fast is that the part I used for a plug was flawless and only need to be painted and polished. No prep work what so ever. If I get requests for the pillar pod then I'll pay to have that pillar sent to me and I can get working on that when I get the time too. I can do either just a pod/s or a full pillar with intergrated pod/s. Same deal with the ttops: Rod was all over that a while back so I figured I should atleast get that going. The one top is primered and will be topcoated tomorrow night. Then the next day I can put it in a mold if all goes well. I had it primered last night but it fell from its perch and the paint go messed up so I had to sand and reprimer it. I've still got a lot of stuff to from the large order I got so I'm only working on other stuff during down time like waiting for filler or paint to cure. Should have one heatshield done tomorrow and the other in a couple days (it met the same fate as the t tops as they were both on the same stand). I got the hood off my car so once I dont have any paint or resin drying I can get to sanding that sucker down (dont want sanding dust in the parts ). It's all coming along. If anyones interested in the pillar gauges then let me know and I'll atleast get it sent to me.

 

ah, u know me... any misc little carbon accessories catch my eye ... its all good tho

 

You in the military?

 

HAHAHA.. I love it..