Finally finished the bonnet mods. A lot of work for a few subtle changes.
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Moving on to more mechanicals, fuel system and, ugh, wiring.
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Finally finished the bonnet mods. A lot of work for a few subtle changes.
Attachment 49740Attachment 49741
Moving on to more mechanicals, fuel system and, ugh, wiring.
Progress on several fronts over the last couple of weeks.
First I wired up the dual speed radiator cooling fan with the help of this thread...
http://forums.hybrid...__1#entry921201
...and it's associated links.
I got all of my parts at the local Pick N Pull.
Dual Speed Taurus Fan $35
Volvo Fan Relay w/plugs $10
BMW Temp. Switch w/plug $ 7
Total $52
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Next I went to work on the hydraulic clutch system.
The Tilton .850 master cylinder, ($85 from Summit Racing)...
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...connects to the Camaro slave cylinder ($35 at O Reilly Auto) with a blue -3 an coupler ($2.45 Summit), a 32" -3 an 90 degree hose ($17 Summit) and a 'GM clutch cylinder to -3 an' adapter ($32 Summit).
Total cost about $90.
Very clean when installed.
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Ordered the Le Mans style gas cap from Factory Five Racing today.
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Fuel pocket will be modified to produce a tight factory-like fit.
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The hydraulic slave cylinders for the clutch make for such a neat installation, way better then trying to get all the mechanical linkage fabbed up for custom installs!!! Nice job!
The secret to making this setup simple is the GM slave to -3AN adapter.
I did virtually the same setup ten years ago for my TR7, using a GM slave mounted in the bell housing, and the stock Camaro master. No adapter available at that time, so I spliced two Camaro hydraulic lines (each with the proper end fittings) together using -3AN fittings. Quite expensive!! And the Camaro master cylinder doesn't mount to a vertical portion of the fire wall. The mounting plate sits at a 45 degree angle to the cylinder, so I fabbed up an adapter from a piece of galvanized pipe. Looked like crap, but worked perfectly.
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I'm in for hotrod....may not be an old school hotrod,.....BUT......it is being built the old school way....in your garage on a small budget and IT IS or WILL BE a mismatch of parts.....Its a modern day HotRod to me......beside....you'z the one havin the fun buildin it and will definately WILL have the fun ridin it.
COOOOOOOOOOOOOL Project.
Nice.I have been watching this thread for awhile.Could you back track alittle and post the fitting of the kit body??.Some details of that would be very good too.Pictures??.
Just curious.Do you have a finished wt of the car??.I would guess it is very light and it wouldn't take much to make it very fast.Cornering it has to be like it is on rails.
I have a lot of pics of the body installation. I'll divide them up into a few posts. As for weight, I have no idea. I'll look into finding out.
Here are a few pics of the donor body prep.
Starting with the original 260Z...
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...enlarging the rear fender openings...
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...and removing the roof.
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The VR body kit came as nine separate fiberglass pieces:
1 Rear Tub
1 Tilt Front End
2 Front Quarter Panels
2 Door skins
1 Trunk Lid
1 Windshield Cap
1 Le Mans gas Cap pocket
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My son Nick helped me attach the header cap first. It slips over the cut roof and gets glassed in.
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Next, we attached the tub with a combination of short strand fiberglass adhesive and expanding foam.
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The fiberglass is used to attach the tub to the door jams. The expanding foam fills the gap between the old Z sheet metal and the new fiberglass body making it impossible for the tub to shift.
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The door skins were glued on using more short strand fiberglass. I know a lot of people prefer to use a two part epoxy adhesive for this, but that becomes very expensive. I've been told by people who are in the business of making high end prototypes, that the short strand fiberglass is more than adequate for automotive purposes.
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A nylon rope soaked with resin, fills the gap between old metal and new fiberglass..
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...and makes for a good hard smooth finish.
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That's the basics of the body fitting. The cheek panels and front bonnet bolt on. The bonnet takes some trimming to fit right around the doors and windshield and I did some reworking of the cheek panels to get a little better fit, but everything else is just basic bodywork... fill and sand.
Panels are all on, before trimming the bonnet.
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Thank You for the body build part you just posted.I need time to digest that.It has turned out just so nice........well I am kind of speechless.
Hey, no problem... I just covered the basic process. I've got a lot more pics for specific mods, like the rear vents. I there's something specific you want to see, let me know.
Some areas of the Velo Rossa body kit just don't seem finished... especially the front inner fender wells. I've seen several finished cars that leave the under hood headlight area and the back of the cheek panels visible through the tire openings.
TACKY!!
A couple of removable, curved fiberglass inner liners for the bonnet should do just fine.
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The rear of the opening will be trickier, as it will also entail screening for the two side vents.
I'm considering alternatives to these vents. Something like this, maybe.
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More chin scratching to come.
Reshaping the fuel pocket for a tighter fit to the LeMans gas cap.
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keep up the great work!
With no new parts coming my way in the next month (keeping a cash cushion for our son's up coming wedding) I've decided to get going on fitment and clean up on some interior parts.
Started with the seats. The reclining release mechanisms rub on the reinforcement used to strengthen the unibody after the top was chopped. Simple fix. I swapped the seats from side to side, putting the release handles next to the tunnel, where there's plenty of room.
Todays job was refurbishing the door glass. A little steel wool, some elbow grease and a coat of paint for the metal pieces, brings back the original shine. I'll start in on the tracks tomorrow.
This is what happens when I have too much free time.:o
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That's a way kewl way to look at paint ideas---how the heck do you do it???
I second that Dave. I usually don't like yellow, but that second yellow one looks great!
Each of the cars was created from the same image. By using an image manipulation program ( Photoshop, Photo Studio or in my case the freeware program Gimp), a base image is created from a simple digital photo. This is the original image I took with my digital camera.
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The base image is created by deleting all the areas I don't want (garage and old wheels) and adding pics of wheels I saved from sellers websites.
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After saving the base image, stripes,
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2 tone areas
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or the whole painted area
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can be cut out and then pasted back over the base image in separate layers to create an image sandwich. The color, brightness, contrast, opacity and other aspects of each layer can then be adjusted separately.
The checkered background represents transparent areas and the filmstrip is created by selecting multiple completed images with the built in "Filmstrip" feature.
I likez the 3rd row first pic......COOOOOOOOL IDEA
I like the first row yellow and white scheme. For kicks it would be great to see that with red instead of yellow, and maybe another with British racing green instead of yellow, but keeping the white accents the same. Has the 60's race car look to it! P.S. thanks for posting the process. I used to be able to do similar stuff with a windows program on my old computer, but haven't found the right freeware or windows program that I can navigate to do it now!
Something like this maybe?
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Gimp is completely free. I've been using it for several months now, and it's got lots of great features.
Here's some more schemes I've been playing with.
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Wow after seeing those I like the green and white. In the new ones above with the yellow white combo, I think it too would look great with the green. P.S. thanks for taking the time to humor me. I think doing this computer rendering firsts helps make the final choice so much better.
Trying to envision paint from all angles.
Sample:
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Adapted these from a vinyl graphics website catering to the tuner crowd. Now my head is spinning with all sorts of possibilities.
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Couldn't help myself. Had to run through all the angles on these two.
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Ultimately the paint color and scheme are your call, but I think on a classy sportscar like this one a simple paint job with maybe the stripe down the middle and around the grille would set it off. It would be like if you took a nice Vette and dolled it up with some of the graphics you posted, it would look garrish, IMO. Less is more, sometimes.
There was a Viper running around here years ago where the guy paid big money to have it painted like a snake! :eek: Wish I had a picture to show, but let's just say the paint scheme "detracted" from an otherwise cool car. Some of those graphics would look good on a tuner car, but your sportscar is way too classy for that.:)
Don
Fuel tank arrived yesterday. I can finally stop playing with paint and start playing with wrenches again.
Started the fuel tank installation by adapting my Z fuel sending unit to my new '56 Chevy fuel tank. I chose to keep the five bolt mounting set up of the tank in case I later decide to switch to aftermarket gauges.
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The first step was to adjust the travel of the float. In the old Z tank, the float travels almost 11 inches in it's arc from empty to full. The new tank is only eight inches tall. I cut the float arm and adjusted the length until the float's arc was about 7 1/2 inches. I wrapped the float arm with a little wire to hold it together.
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I then hooked up test wires and checked the gauge readout. A little fine tuning, accomplished by bending the float arm, and it works perfectly. I then spot welded the two pieces of float arm and ground it smooth.
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I then drilled the five holes into the sending unit rim.
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The raised center portion of the unit won't allow the mounting bolts to lay flat, so I made a spacer out of a large washer.
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The spacer makes a nice retaining ring.
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I'll cut more of the trunk floor and finalize the position under the car, then fab some mounts, install the pick up tube and vent and make a new trunk floor.
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Nice.Good to hear from you.
Can you explain please why you went with a fuel tank from a 56 Chevy and what was wrong with the original Z tank? Does the Chevy one hold more litres to run the V8 longer between fuel stations? Just curious thanks.
Nice work on the tank & sender. Glad to see you're still at it.
Now that you have go go juice storage, your getting close to driving it!
If crazy things happen when you push down on your right foot, it is a hot rod. SBC in something that light, things WILL happen, so it is a hot rod to me.
SHORT ANSWER:
It allows me to run duel exhaust through the rear valance and it holds around five gallons more than the original Z tank.
LONG WINDED OVER EXPLAINED ANSWER:
The circular hole in the previous post is where the spare tire well used to be. The original Z tank bulged up on the right side of the well, then ran under the well covering almost the full length of the rear valance. Because of this, most builders simply run duel exhaust under the tank and outside the rear valance. This leads to ground clearance issues on any car even slightly lowered. Some builders opt for side pipes like the Cobras. Neither arrangement appeals to me, I want the stance low and I don't want to worry about burning the hair off my legs exiting the car, so the old tank and spare well had to go.
After researching tanks and fuel cells, I found this one (1955-56 Chevy Steel Fuel Tank) at Tanksinc.com. It has the right combination of features I was looking for. Dimensions that will allow room for mufflers on each side with the exhaust exiting through (not under) the valance. Its only eight inches deep , so ground clearance isn't an issue. Filler neck on the right side. Sending unit mount located on the side, not the top. Larger capacity. And the big one PRICE!! On sale for $125. Most of the fuel cells I found start at more than that and have half the capacity. Heck, a universal tank with less capacity at Tanksinc is $215.
And the geometric shape of the '56 makes it easy to fab mounts.
Turns out they sent me a tank with a fuel injection tray, so it would be easy to convert if that later becomes an option.
Great to see your still working on it AND posting pictures
Thanks for both answers and I agree with all the reasons behind the research and then the purchase of the chevy tank. I also like the idea of the pipes exiting through the valance panel as it is those little extras that will make your car outstanding. Heck the extra work you have put into it ,it would be a shame to start cutting corners now.So again,thanks for the answers and yes, keep posting those photos and progress.
Looking good! Last I remember you were doing fiberglass work. I have been busy myself building a center console using the console from my 98 Blazer as a mold. Looking back it would have been cheaper and easier to cut up an actual Blazer console to fit :whacked:
Don't post those body fitting pictures on any Z forums!:eek::LOL: