gav240z

I was planning to try and get my Z registered on CH plates so that my mum could drive it from time to time whilst I'm away. Seems a waste to have it parked up in the garage for nearly 4 years now. Would rather see it getting some use.

Do this and be done with it

Why is everything BLUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE???

I also think that keeping build threads open is a good way to attract new business since people can see your skills and work first hand.

I don't know if a locked section will really provide much more security though. For example let's say a "member" with access to a locked section can see images of your project and decides to send a link directly to the image to a friend or post it on another forum thread elsewhere on the web. People are going to see this image. For example your avatar image is here: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=12498;type=avatar Now I could lock down all "hot linking" to images, and I have considered this due to the bandwidth it can use. However sometimes this can be a good way of attracting traffic from other sites and threads to this site. You would be surprised what other websites and forums link back to Auszcar.com I've gone through various logs and seen sites and conversations about topics on Auszcar discussed elsewhere. So whilst the thread itself may not be visible to outsiders the images could still be viewed. I assume that it's the images that people are most sensitive about? Other things people could consider from a security perspective. 1. Don't include street signs in images (if you take a photo outside your house). That includes house number etc.. 2. Cover the licence plate using image editing software. Unfortunately I don't know of a good tool that can do this automatically. I think it would be a good feature for Google Picasa to do (since it already has face recognition) recognising a number plate should be easy. 3. Be deliberately vague about your location. If you prefer use Victoria or S.E Suburbs. This is a tough call because often it's helped members network. 4. I'm sure there is more but this is just a few ideas.

Well the forum software will only show guests and regulars based on their logged in status. Google Analytics however will show me activity on the site based on those who have signed in (within the last 2 years) compared with those who have never signed in. I can tell you that less than 1/3 of site activity is from members. The rest is from guests who are potential future members. I don't want to detract from the current topic though. Also as far as I know the having to re-login issue should not be present still? Unless people still have this problem? I often browse the site not signed in either from work at elsewhere as I'm sure members do.

Just want to reiterate that I haven't ruled out a locked / members only section. However I see 2 issues: 1. How do we manage / qualify a member and allow them access to this section? 2. Is the purpose of such as section for security? Or is there some other need for such a section? In terms of security I think we can address this via education and helping members stay safe by being a little more cautious with the information they present in a forum. I know a couple of members feel strongly about a member only section and I hope my post above doesn't come across as "no because I say so".

There is lots of valid points raised in here and I'm almost sure to miss addressing half of it in my first reply. I'm kind of glad I was away on holiday because it's really given the community a chance to voice many concerns issues and get a good mix of responses. I fear had I been able to reply sooner perhaps many would have remained quiet and allowed me to speak on their behalf. So if I were to summarise a few things: 1. There is some concern as to weather or not the forum software has the capability to provide some form of "locked" or exclusive section. I actually think the forum software is capable. But the workflow for such a locked section is another issue. For example do we lock it by membership status? i.e donating members only? My opinion on this is that it doesn't really provide much more security to me. If someone was willing to drive 100km out of Melbourne and case the joint then donating a 5er to get access to a member only section is not really an effective form of security. We could manually approve users to a section based on critertia: eg: number of posts, verified by other members, providing certain details like chassis no., licence no. , address details etc.. but then we introuduce a manual review process which is more overhead for myself and moderators. I also don't like the idea of creating a "clicky" group and creating a division in the site between the newbies and the long standing members who might snub the newcomers. I've seen and experienced this before and that is really something I've tried hard to prevent here. 2. There is the issue of what's available online. To give an example I was looking at wheels for sale in DriftWorks forum for my RX7 and I noticed a shop name in the background of the picture of the car that had the wheels currently on it. A quick search on Google Maps and I was able to streetview into that exact location. Pretty scary huh? In fact I have been able to locate other RX-7's on Streetview just by doing a bit of explorations of various areas on Google Maps. When I went to look at my current RX-7 the previous owner met me at a public car park of a shopping center. I was a bit annoyed because I wanted to view the car from cold start, but obviously giving your address to someone you don't know is a bit of a concern. When signing the papers for the car the previous owner told me he was very cautious of what he posts online (we were talking about IT in general as we were both in the field). He had obfuscated his number plates in the original classified AD. So I do think some of the onus here needs to be put back onto the poster. If you share certain information you need to realise ANYONE can see it. Having a private section may prevent some "would be" thieves but the really determined scum will still probably find a way to get this information. As I say if someone is willing to go to the effort of breaking into someone's place and going to all effort and taking the risk of being caught then a few clicks of a mouse is not going to stop anyone. To truly have your privacy in this day and age you should probably send letters via the post. Since all digital information can be read and is being read by various organisations. Even your mobile phone calls and SMS can be read easily and has been. Look at Rupert Murdoch phone hacking scandal as of late. http://www.google.ie/search?aq=0&oq=rupert+murdoch+phone+hack To perhaps divert for a second, social media is a good and bad thing. Look at the revolutions going on in the Middle East right now. Sites like Wikileaks are the catalyst for this. Leaking information about Government corruption. All this classified information has been made public and sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube have allowed people to connect and organise protests. On the other hand "heroes in their hotted up rides" often referred to as Hoons by the Australian media have been prosecuted and caught out due to posting videos of their idiocy on Youtube. It works both ways. I think the best way forward here is to create a stick post on the forum that helps members stay safe and reduce the risks. 3. Open Vs Closed Community I'm all in favor of being Open. It is what allowed this site to grow in the first place and just because someone is a guest or a forum lurker does not make them a thief. As other have stated having to sign in to view pictures / threads is a major PITA. There is also 1 other consideration and that is search engines. They find and index information when it's open. Locking it down will result in search engines being blocked and unable to find information. This seriously restricts traffic to the site from search engines. Blocking various email addresses / hosting services is also a PITA for genuine users. I do make an effort to block various hosts that continuously deliver spammers to the site though and these are often fairly obvious and rarely delivery genuine users. As many also stated they joined this site due to the open nature of it and I think we have more to loose by being closed off. 4. Sending PM's is good, but even I can't guarantee your information is not going to be accessible by a 3rd party who wants it bad enough. If someone were to hack the site they could potentially read anything stored in the database. Same thing happened to Sony recently when hackers managed to get credit card details from playstation users. http://www.google.ie/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=sony+credit+card+theft Bottom line is nothing is 100% safe so the best protection is to be cautious with the information you post to any website not just Auszcar. 5. It seems from what I've read that Peter's thief was a previous customer, an Auszcar Guest (we haven't confirmed member) and possibly was following him on Facebook. So it could be the info on this forum or a combination of all 3 that led him to find Peter's place. So am I ruling out a private section. Not yet - I do think it could work but I'm not sure exactly how we could regulate it or ensure we only get genuine members in that section? If you have a member rides section then I think it would pay to review what you have posted in terms of how that information may be used. I think we can get the community to put some best practices together on how to protect yourselves. I do believe 99.9% of our community are the good apples it's just the 0.01% we have to watch for. I know myself that I will be reviewing information I've posted online about myself (and do from time to time). But in light of this event I may edit some information I've posted to other websites in the past. You can never be too careful. For example I'll never sign into my online banking from a computer I don't know because of a device called a key logger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiq2fSUJ7W8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqic_aY3TqQ For many other scams see Scam Watch from the BBC and The Real Hustle both great shows that demonstrate how easy it is to get something if you want it bad enough. I think this thread is a good debate and I'm open to hearing more opinions / suggestions. The last thing I want is for members such as Peter to stop sharing such great detail / information with the rest of us.

Bit of both, just saw this thread today. Have been on Holiday in Greece for the past week. I will give this thread a serious read tomorrow when I'm fresh and focused.

Just back from a Holiday in Greece I will post some thoughts on the matter shortly in what appears to be a split thread here: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,9606.0.html @Peter I'm sorry to hear that the thief was previously a guest on the site. Perhaps you can PM / Email me the user details (aka username)? Unless they were just a non-registered guest of the site?

Thanks for the donations this month guys. I've updated members to donating member status where possible. However there were a few of you I couldn't match your paypal email to your Auszcar (email). If you made a donation and your username is still not set to show Donating Member please contact me and I'll update you.

Ok guys, I'll take a look at some options shortly and see if it makes sense to make it available for Auszcar. Thanks for the feedback.

There is a Facebook group, but if I'm honest I'll be focusing on creating a Google+ hangout probably in future. What do you want the App to do? I don't think that would be a long way away simply because I really need to migrate the site into 1 DB first. Probably more likely an Android App than Apple but neither is likely right now. Unless there is really strong demand for something or a particular feature?

I'm actually looking forward to Electric Powered Vehicles. I think they have so much potential and we should have junked Internal Combustion years ago. That's my opinion I know others will disagree, but for me the whole concept or requiring oil and fuel and air + spark is just well antiquated when you compare to the simplicity of electric. I've watched a couple of documentaries about it, "Who killed the electric car" was interesting and whilst I do admit I'll miss the sound an excitement of a petrol engine when you really think about it working on electric cars will be far cleaner. We can of course still have the old school cars as a hobby / antique / restoration thing, but electric will be the daily driver and I'm thinking lots less headache's too. I love this electric drag car.

Yeah Clarkson was raving about it on Top Gear a couple of weeks back. Nice car, but hefty price tag that's for sure.

That's what I usually recommend, it doesn't go toward hosting costs but it helps fund events in Victoria. Unfortunately the only other alternative I have for members outside of Vic is my own personal bank account. If you are ok with that then I'll PM / Email those details?

You mean you don't enjoy hanging upside down rooting around under the dash trying to find where everything goes, cutting your hands on the sharp metal edges and getting all kinds of weird crud that technically isn't grease on your hands but smells and looks like it? Yeah the 240z dash is even worse if you want to remove the gauges they have some weird butterfly nuts that are impossible to undo with anything but children sized hands. Sounds like you got it all sorted though and at least you have a dome light. Yay! It's funny how the little things are so rewarding to fix.

Great looking 240z on eBay. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Datsun-240z-Sports-1971-2D-Coupe-3-SP-Automatic-2-/190553401125

What do you feel has changed? Do you think it's a bit more hostile around here? I don't doubt that Rev has a positive impact but I wonder what you feel has changed? The Karma feature was designed to help member vouch for each other. Unfortunately the negative karma introduced a bit of trouble although in some instances I think it makes sense to give negative karma Such as our Panels thread where people were told to "choke on a fat one". As mentioned I think quality of posts is a good indication of how valuable a contributor is to the site and what I also think is good is when members write up a detailed introduction that is well thought out. I've seen quite a few of these introductions and I'm always pleased to see them and read them.

I don't know what works on the 1200 Datsun forums but your attitude won't work around here. I can also delete your fishing thread mate, so don't be a smart arse. As a new member you come on here looking to sell and then turn your nose up at offers. Your eBay ad to me said you'd take $500 but obviously you now think you can get more for them and have changed your mind. Pretty much what Phil said applies.... Good day to you,

Yeah it's got the steering wheel on the correct side. UK / Ireland drive on the same side as the Aussie's . The plan is to bring it back to Australia and I got some freight quotes around £1,500. I got her for the equivalent of $6000 AU. There so damn cheap over here I was laughing all the way back from Cork to Dublin - couldn't believe I had 1.

Yeah you lied. We already have this topic but it had another name . I've now merged them for you.

Hi mate, RE: Your problem with sudden loss of power. Any chance of seeing some pics of your engine bay? I know various Z's have had vapor lock issues due to heat in the engine bay. I'd like to see your Engine bay set up and see if this could be your problem? Since this will show me what carbs you are running and if you have an under-tray still installed etc... Could also be a faulty alternator I've had a bad alternator cause a loss in power all of a sudden when the fan kicks in (had electric fan).

Yeah I bought some Hammerite paint, but someone previous to me already tried painting the calipers and they have obviously faded over time so they are now a nice hot pink. The reason for wanting powder coating is that it's more durable and has that high gloss look. For example: Will definitely shop around anyway, going to try and get a spare set of calipers to rebuild / powdercoat while mine are on the car.